Functional health literacy in hypertensive elders at primary health care.

Victor Roberto Santos Costa,Daniel Apolinário,Polyana D’Arc Rezende Costa,Alfredo Nicodemos Cruz Santana,Eduardo Yoshio Nakano

doi:10.1590/0034-7167-2018-0897

Abstract

to assess the relationship between inadequate functional health literacy and inadequate blood pressure control in older people with hypertension in Primary Health Care. a cross-sectional study with sample calculated at 392. SAHLPA-18 tool was used for functional health literacy; blood pressure was measured; sociodemographic and clinical data were collected. Hierarchical logistic regression was used. (high) inadequate blood pressure and (low) functional inadequate health literacy were present in 41.6% and 54.6% of the people, respectively. Factors associated with inadequate blood pressure were: inadequate functional health literacy, black-brown skin color, overweight-obesity, hypertension diagnosis time, non-adherence to exercise/diet, drug treatment. Schooling had no association with inadequate blood pressure. hypertensive elderly people with inadequate health literacy were more likely to have inadequate blood pressure. Thus, health professionals need to value functional health literacy as a possible component to control blood pressure.

Highlights

OBJECTIVEOver the past few years, studies have shown that chronic diseases control is not adequately predicted by formal schooling alone
Blood pressure was not controlled in 41.6% of the individuals, and inadequate functional health literacy was present in 54.6%
With the data presented in this article, we can suggest a greater attention by primary health care teams in caring for hypertensive elderly people with inadequate health functional literacy, since such individuals are more likely to have inadequate blood pressure control

Summary

Introduction

OBJECTIVEOver the past few years, studies have shown that chronic diseases control is not adequately predicted by formal schooling alone. Functional health literacy represents the ability to interpret texts and numbers that are usually present in test results or prescriptions, as well as in guidance leaflets[1,2,3,4]. In this way, some tests were developed to measure functional health literacy[2,3,4,5,6]. Functional inadequate health literacy is associated with a lower level of physical activity, lower fruit and vegetable consumption, poor adherence to drug treatment, poorer chronic diseases control, worse postoperative evolution, higher health care costs, and higher mortality, including in the elderly[7,8,9,10]

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion