Determinants of Health Literacy in Cardiovascular Patients: Evidence from a Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Health literacy is significant in treatment of cardiovascular diseases because the patients should get to know health-related information, understand how best to communicate with the health practitioners and to make informed decisions regarding treatment. This report set out to evaluate domain-specific health literacy and find demographic and clinical predictors in cardiac patients.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed with 105 cardiac patients in Mayo Hospital Lahore that is a hospital-based study. A functional, interactive, and critical health literacy structured close-ended questionnaire was used to collect the required data. The descriptive statistics were employed to describe patient characteristics and literacy scores. Comparative statistical tests were used to the differences in demographic groups and different predictors of health literacy were estimated using the multivariate regression analysis.

Results: Patients of lower age and with higher level of education scored considerably better in all areas of health literacy (p < 0.05). Functional literacy presented larger mean scores than interactive and critical literacy. The multivariate regression analysis found that patient-centered communication (Β= 0.47, p = 0.001) and education level (β =0.42, p=0.001) and social support (β =0.29, p=0.002) were significantly related to health literacy and the older age, diabetes mellitus, and low income were associated with poorer literacy levels.

Conclusion: Demographic, social and clinical factors affect health literacy of cardiac patients. Patient-centered communication and education provision can be enhanced and help increase health literacy and cardiovascular disease management.