Rabia Shahid|Muhammad Shoker|Luan Manh Chu|Ryan Frehlick|Heather Ward|Punam Pahwa
Impact of low health literacy on patients’ health outcomes: a multicenter cohort study
University of Saskatchewan|University of Saskatchewan|Alberta Health Services|University of Saskatchewan|University of Saskatchewan|University of Saskatchewan
study aims assess health literacy medical patients admitted hospitals examine correlation patients emergency department visits hospital readmissions durations hospital staythis prospective cohort study recruited patients admitted general internal medicine units two urban tertiary care hospitals health literacy measured using fulllength test functional health literacy adults logistic regression analyses performed examine correlation health literacy desired outcomes primary outcome interest study determine correlation health literacy emergency department revisit within 90 days discharge secondary outcomes interest assess correlation health literacy length stay hospital readmission within 90 days dischargewe found 50 adequate health literacy 32 inadequate 18 patients marginal health literacy patients inadequate health literacy likely revisit emergency department compared patients adequate health literacy odds ratio 30 95 confidence interval 1369 p 001 patients inadequate health literacy mean predicted probability emergency department revisits 022 011 education level high school less 057 018 completed college significant correlation noted health literacy duration hospital stay readmissiononly half patients admitted general internal medicine unit adequate health literacy patients low health literacy high education higher probability emergency department revisits