Assessing health literacy in renal failure and kidney transplant patients

Context-A report released in 2004 by the Institute of Medicine estimated that as many as 90 million Americans do not have the necessary skills required to manage complex treatment regimens or navigate through current health care systems successfully. Objectives-To identify the level of health literacy in patients seen at a suburban transplant center by using the Newest Vital Sign tool to assess health literacy. Design and Setting-This descriptive study used survey methods. The convenience sample included 44 adult patients, both English and Spanish speaking, who attended a routine clinic visit at a suburban transplant center. Methods-The Newest Vital Sign tool was administered during routine outpatient medical visits. Demographic information collected included age, sex, highest level of education, and whether or not the participant was on dialysis or received a kidney transplant. Descriptive statistics were completed for each answer on the tool. Chi-square analyses were done to determine whether demographic factors or the presence of dialysis affected health literacy in this sample. A 1-way analysis of variance between-subjects test was run to compare the effect of primary language and educational level on scores. Results-Of the 44 participants, 18 (41%) had scores indicating a possible likelihood to a high likelihood of limited health literacy. Twenty-nine percent of the English-speaking participants and 89% of the Spanish-speaking participants scored in this range. An association was also found between performance on the survey and level of education. However, assessment of educational level alone is not predictive of health literacy; 8 participants (18%) had a high school or college education yet scored as having limited health literacy. (C) 2013 NATCO, The Organization for Transplant Professionals