Abstract
BackgroundAlthough health literacy and quality of life are important concepts in health care, the link between them is unclear, especially for a population of frequent users of health care services with chronic diseases. Low health literacy is a common problem that has been linked to several negative health outcomes. Quality of life is an important health outcome in patient-centered care. Frequent users of health care services are a vulnerable population that deserves attention due to high costs and negative outcomes such as lower quality of life and higher mortality. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between health literacy and the physical and mental components of quality of life among frequent users of health care services with chronic diseases.MethodsThis study presents the cross-sectional analysis of data collected through the V1SAGES project, a randomized controlled trial on the effectiveness of a case management intervention in primary care in Quebec, Canada. Participants (n = 247) were frequent users of health care services presenting at least one chronic condition. Health literacy was measured by the Newest Vital Sign (NVS), and the physical and mental components of quality of life were evaluated by the Short Form Health Survey Version 2 (SF-12v2). The association between health literacy (independent variable) and the physical and mental components of quality of life was examined using biserial correlation.ResultsNo association was found between health literacy and quality of life (physical component: r = 0.108, ρ = 0.11; mental component: r = 0.147, ρ = 0.15).ConclusionThis study suggests that there is no relationship between health literacy and the physical and mental components of quality of life among frequent users of health care services.Trial registrationNCT01719991. Registered October 25, 2012.
Highlights
Health literacy and quality of life are important concepts in health care, the link between them is unclear, especially for a population of frequent users of health care services with chronic diseases
There is no consensus on the definition; it remains important considering the great prevalence of low health literacy and its impacts on health [4,5,6,7,8,9]
Setting and design This study is a cross-sectional analysis conducted among patients recruited for a larger project, V1SAGES, a randomized controlled trial (RCT) on the effectiveness of a case management intervention by primary care nurses in Family Medicine Groups (FMG) in the Saguenay-LacSaint-Jean region of Quebec (Canada) described in a previous article [31]
Summary
Health literacy and quality of life are important concepts in health care, the link between them is unclear, especially for a population of frequent users of health care services with chronic diseases. Frequent users of health care services are a vulnerable population that deserves attention due to high costs and negative outcomes such as lower quality of life and higher mortality. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between health literacy and the physical and mental components of quality of life among frequent users of health care services with chronic diseases. Low health literacy is highly prevalent in the general population [5], especially in individuals with chronic diseases [8]. The relationship between health literacy and quality of life, an important patient-centered outcome often Health literacy could be a better health indicator than age, income, employment status and education [16].
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