Open AccessFunctional, Communicative, and Critical Health Literacy among Iranian Patients with Heart Failure: a Cross- sectional study
Author(s) -
Mahin Nomali,
Kian Alipasandi,
Ramin Mohammadrezaei
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of medical research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2395-7565
DOI - 10.31254/jmr.2019.5404
Subject(s) - medicine , cronbach's alpha , interquartile range , heart failure , cross sectional study , health literacy , continuous variable , psychological intervention , descriptive statistics , pediatrics , health care , clinical psychology , nursing , psychometrics , statistics , mathematics , pathology , economics , economic growth
Background: Heart failure (HF) is a major public health with rising prevalence, worldwide. Low health literacy (HL) among patients with HF is associated with clinical outcomes. On the other hand, considering low HL is necessary when designing interventions to improve self-care. Aims and objectives: the aim was to determine functional, communicative and critical HL among Iranian patients with HF. Study Design: This was a cross sectional study. Setting: This study was carried out at the HF clinic of Tehran Heart Center (THC) affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS, Tehran, Iran). Materials and Methods: 210 adult patients with confirmed diagnosis of HF for at least 3 months and with NYHA function class II to IV and an ability of reading and writing Farsi language were included in the study during June 2017 and March 2018 with consecutive sampling. Data were collected in a short form that was included demographic and clinical variables which was completed according to patients` self-report and their clinical records. HL was measured by Heart Failure-Specific HL Scale (Cronbach’s alpha=0.71). Scores were reported totally and in 3 domains of functional, communicative, and critical HL. Scores less than the median was considered as low HL. Statistics: Data were described by descriptive statistics such as frequency and partial frequency distribution for categorical variables and mean, median, standard deviation (SD), and interquartile range (IQR) for continuous variables. Results: 188/210 patients with HF participated in the study. The mean age of patients was 59.5 (14.5) years old. The majority of patients were male (64.9%), married (83.5%), and were at the high school level of education (38.4%). In addition, 66.1% of them were employed. The low level of total, functional, communicative, and critical HL was seen among 17%, 54.8%, 60.1%, and 58% of patients with HF. Conclusion: patients with HF had a high level of total HL. While the level of functional, communicative, and critical HL was lower among patients with HF. Thus, there is need to be improved by appropriate intervention.