Accessibility / Report Error

Factors that influence health literacy in patients with coronary artery disease * * Paper extracted from master’s thesis “Self-care, health literacy and knowledge about the disease in patients with coronary artery disease”, presented to Universidade de São Paulo, Escola de Enfermagem, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) - Finance Code 001, Brazil.

Objective:

to investigate the factors that exert an influence on health literacy in patients with coronary artery disease.

Methods:

a crosssectional study, including 122 patients with coronary diseases (60.7% male; 62.07 ± 8.8 years old). Health literacy and specific knowledge about the disease were evaluated through interviews with the participants by means of the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults and the Short version of the coronary artery disease education questionnaire. The data were described by means of central tendency measures and frequencies. The factors that exert an influence on health literacy were determined by means of a linear regression model. The significance level adopted was 5%. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee.

Results:

age and arterial hypertension presented an inverse and significant relationship with health literacy. On the other hand, higher schooling levels and having a job were associated with better scores in the health literacy instrument. Specific knowledge about the disease did not exert any influence on health literacy. The variables included in the regression model explained 55.3% of inadequate literacy.

Conclusion:

this study, knowledge about the disease exerts no influence on health literacy: however, the professionals should consider the sociodemographic and clinical factors to plan the interventions.

Descriptors:
Health Literacy; Coronary Artery Disease; Nursing; Health Education; Nursing Care; Socioeconomic Factors


Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto / Universidade de São Paulo Av. Bandeirantes, 3900, 14040-902 Ribeirão Preto SP Brazil, Tel.: +55 (16) 3315-3451 / 3315-4407 - Ribeirão Preto - SP - Brazil
E-mail: rlae@eerp.usp.br