Abstract
As with all other chronic noncommunicable diseases, adequate health literacy plays a key role in making the right decisions in the treatment of heart failure. Patients with heart failure and a lower health literacy have a reduced quality of life. A cross-sectional study among 200 patients with heart failure was conducted at a state university hospital in Belgrade, Serbia. The European Health Literacy Questionnaire, HLS-EU-Q47, was used to assess health literacy. Quality of life was measured with the generic SF-36 and the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire. Descriptive and analytical statistical analysis was applied. More than half of the respondents (64%) had limited health literacy. The lowest mean health literacy index (28.01 ± 9.34) was within the disease prevention dimension, where the largest number of respondents showed limited health literacy (70%). Our patients had a poorer quality of life in the physical dimension, and the best scores were identified in the emotional role and social functioning. Health literacy was highly statistically significant and an independent predictor of quality of life (physical, mental, and total quality of life). Improving health literacy can lead to better decisions in the treatment of disease and quality of life in heart failure patients.
Highlights
Significant effort is being invested in the operation of health systems in an attempt to satisfy the health requirements of patients
We identified that health literacy was highly statistically significant (p < 0.001) and an independent predictor of quality of life in patients with heart failure, both before and after adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics
We found that increased systolic blood pressure was significantly associated with the health literacy index; previous studies reported that this specific parameter was a significant predictor of mortality in patients with heart failure [5]
Summary
Significant effort is being invested in the operation of health systems in an attempt to satisfy the health requirements of patients. Public health policies should provide certain preconditions for health, individuals need to take an active role in terms of specific issues and decisions concerning health [1]. The skills required to manage our health in the best possible way represent the essence of health literacy [2]. Health literacy can be viewed from public health and medical points of view as the: “individual’s knowledge, motivation, and competences to access, understand, appraise, and apply health information in order to make judgements and take decisions in everyday life concerning health care, disease prevention, and health promotion to maintain or improve quality of life during the life course” [4].
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