Impact of Health Literacy on Patient-Reported Outcomes in Benign Gynaecology: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Health literacy (HL) is a person’s capacity to obtain, process and understand the basic health information needed to make appropriate health decisions. Poor HL has been linked to several negative patient outcomes: inferior disease-specific knowledge, reduced self-reported health, higher mortality and increased hospitalizations. Managing benign gynaecologic disorders requires advanced HL skills, which includes understanding relevant anatomy and clinical presentations, recognizing symptom severity, managing medications, and comprehending treatment options. The objective is to evaluate the relationship between low HL and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in patients with benign gynaecologic conditions. In this specific population, we also seek to determine the current reported prevalence of low HL; examine demographic characteristics that may be related to low HL; and collate any HL interventions described in the literature.