Investigation of health literacy level and its effect on quality of life in patients with spinal cord injury

Abstract

Objectives To determine the health literacy (HL) level in patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) and evaluate the relationship between HL and the quality of life (QoL). Study Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Ankara Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Education and Research Hospital, Turkey. Participants A total of 77 patients with traumatic SCI aged 15–65 years where the trauma had occurred at least a month ago before data collection and who were attending the rehabilitation program at the hospital as inpatients we included in the study. Outcome Measures The European Health Literacy Questionnaire Turkish Adaptation (HLS-TR) was used for the evaluation of the HL level, and the Short Form-36 was used for the evaluation of the QoL. Results The HL level was inadequate in 32.5%, problematic-limited in 40.3%, sufficient in 19.5%, and excellent in 7.8% of the patients. The vitality and mental health subdimensions of the QoL were found to be statistically significantly better in participants with excellent, sufficient or problematic-limited HL compared to those with an inadequate level. Conclusions According to our results, the HL level of the majority of patients with SCI who are hospitalized in our hospital is low, and there is a relationship between HL and QoL. In conclusion, steps need to be taken to increase the HL levels of patients to improve their QoL, taking into account the important effect of HL on the QoL.