Alfabetización en salud en pacientes con insuficiencia cardiaca atendidos en atención primaria

OBJECTIVES: The level of health literacy is examined, as well as its conditioning factors in patients with heart failure who are seen routinely in a Primary Health Care Area. DESIGN: A multicentre cross-sectional study. SETTING: 10 Primary care centres from the metropolitan area of Barcelona. PARTICIPANTS: Patients diagnosed with heart failure. Inclusion criteria: to have visited the Primary Health Care centre in the last year, being able to arrive at the primary care setting independently, and voluntarily participation. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: Health Literacy Survey–European Union - Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q) and Spanish version of the European Heart Failure Self-care Behaviour Scale. An analysis was made of the relationships between health literacy, self-care practices, sociodemographic, and clinical variables using ANOVA test and a multiple linear regression model. RESULTS: The study included 318 patients (51.2% women) with a mean age of 77.9 ± 8.7 years. The index of health literacy of 79.6% (n = 253) of the participants indicated problems in understanding healthcare information. Health literacy level was explained by academic level (P < .001), the extent of heart failure (P = .032), self-care, and age (P < .04).The academic level explained 61.6% of the health of literacy (95% bootstrap: 44.58%; 46.75%). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with stable heart failure, it is important to consider all factors that help patients to understand the healthcare information. Health literacy explains patient self-care attitude in heart failure.