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Health literacy of Icelandic patients with coronary heart disease


 
 
 Icelandic Nurses" Assoc., Landspitali Univ Hosp., Icelandic Reg Dev Instit, Univ of Akureyri, Akureyri Hosp,
 
 
 
 KRANS
 
 
 
  Sufficient health literacy (HL) is vital for patients to effectively manage their chronic disease. There are indications that around 50% of the public have limited HL, which can lead to difficulties in self-care, such as medication adherence and lifestyle management. In order to develop effective patient education for patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and support their self-care, more knowledge is needed on their HL. This is one of the first studies on HL in Iceland and the first on HL in the cardiac patient population.
 
 
 
  To describe HL and related factors in patients, 6 months after hospital admission for their CHD.
 
 
 
  Data was collected from patients with questionnaires (in 2018-2019), six months following an acute or elective treatment for their CHD. Patients answered the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire- short version (HLS-EU-Q16), a 16 items instruments with scores ranges from zero (low/no HL) to 16 (high HL). A score of 0 to 8 is considered an indicator of "insufficient" HL, a score from 9 to 12 as "limited" health literacy, and a score of 13 or more as "sufficient" HL. Data on educational needs (on 19 CHD related topics), disease-related knowledge (CADE-Q SV), general (mental and physical) health (SF-12V2) and self-care (SC-CHDI) were collected from patients as background data.
 
 
 
  Preliminary data analysis shows that patients (N = 376, mean age 65 (SD 8.9), 80% male, 30% with basic education only) had a mean HL score of 13.7 (SD 2.5). Sufficient HL was observed in 71.7% of patients, limited HL in 24.5% and 3.8% had insufficient HL.  Health literacy was inversely associated with educational needs (odds ratio (OR) 0.58 (0.35;0.98). An increase in HL level was associated with an increase in knowledge (OR 1.13 (0.01; 1.26), self-care maintenance (OR 1.03 (1.01; 1.06), self-care confidence (OR 1.03 (1.01; 1.04) and mental health (OR 1.02 (1.01;1.04).
 
 
 
  The health literacy of patients in this study is satisfactory. Their HL is associated with their disease-related knowledge, educational needs, confidence, mental health and self-care maintenance.  HL should be assessed when planning patient education for patients with CHD and the education tailored to individual needs.
