Gildàsio S. De Oliveira|Robert J. McCarthy|Michael S. Wolf|Jane L. Holl
The impact of health literacy in the care of surgical patients: a qualitative systematic review
Northwestern University|Northwestern University|Northwestern University|Northwestern University
inadequate health literacy affects 90 million americans associated adverse outcomes medicine field including increased hospitalization rates greater mortality since surgical patients often required make complex decisions adhere complex instructions health literacy may profound impact surgical practice main objective current study systematically evaluate role health literacy surgical patientsa systematic search performed identify studies evaluated role health literacy perioperative setting following prisma guidelines studies examined health literacy using validated instrument perioperative setting includedten studies including data 1147 patients included median iqr number patients included studies 101 30 152 majority studies used short test functional literacy adults stofhla evaluate patients health literacy five studies evaluated patients preoperatively four studies evaluated patients postoperative period one study time evaluation relation surgical procedure defined lowest prevalence inadequate health literacy detected kidney transplant patients 6 124 5 highest prevalence inadequate health literacy detected orthopedic patients total joint replacement 86 126 60 inadequate health literacy preoperative period associated poor medical information comprehension may adversely affect adherence preoperative medications even modulate surgical disparities inadequate health literacy postoperative period associated poor comprehension discharge instructions worse kidney function transplant recipientshealth literacy seems significant impact care surgical patients studies establish impact poor health literacy perioperative outcomes needed