BACKGROUND Low health literacy is associated with low adherence to self-management in many chronic diseases. Additionally, health beliefs are thought to be determinants of self-management behaviors. In this study we sought to determine the association, if any, of health literacy and health beliefs among elderly individuals with COPD. METHODS We enrolled a cohort of patients with COPD from two...

Low health literacy affects nearly half of the U.S. population. Health care professionals may not recognize low health literacy in their patients nor understand its impact on health outcomes. The purpose of this pilot study was to describe nurses' knowledge and perceptions of low health literacy on patients, their practice, and the health system. This cross-sectional, descriptive study used a w...

BACKGROUND Low health literacy is associated with worse glycemic control among patients with diabetes; the relationship between health literacy and blood glucose among patients without diagnosed diabetes, particularly in resource-limited settings, is not known. Because emergency department patients are at risk for both low health literacy and undiagnosed diabetes, we examined their relationship...

OBJECTIVES To estimate the prevalence of low health literacy, and evaluate the impact of low health literacy on outcomes in patients with chronic musculoskeletal conditions. DATA SOURCES We searched Embase, Pubmed, PsycInfo, and CINAHL in January 2011 for relevant studies, restricted to English-language articles. STUDY SELECTION AND DATA EXTRACTION Studies were included if they measured hea...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationships between social isolation, health literacy, and all-cause mortality, and the modifying effect of social isolation on the latter relationship. METHODS Data were from 7731 adults aged ≥50 years participating in Wave 2 (2004/2005) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Social isolation was defined according to marital/cohabiting status and contact ...

Background & objectives: The World Health Organization has introduced health literacy as one of the most important determinants of health which in turn can affect the quantity and quality of sexual relationship and sexual and marital satisfaction of individuals. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the relationship between health literacy and marital and sexual satisfaction in women...

This study examines the association between health literacy and adherence to low-salt diet practices among individuals with hypertension. Health literacy is the ability of individuals to understand and utilize health information. We surveyed 238 patients with hypertension from a primary care clinic in Charlotte, NC. We assessed health literacy and self-reported low-salt diet. Logistic regressio...

Rapid and accurate health literacy screening tools could assist interventions to improve care in the HIV clinic setting. Prior studies described brief screening questions for identification of persons with low health literacy, but the performance of these questions in HIV clinics is unknown. We examined the accuracy of provider perception and previously described brief screening questions for i...