TY - JOUR
T1 - Low Health Literacy Is Associated with Poorer Physical and Mental Health-Related Quality of Life in Dialysed Patients
AU - Skoumalova, Ivana
AU - Madarasova Geckova, Andrea
AU - Rosenberger, Jaroslav
AU - Majernikova, Maria
AU - Kolarcik, Peter
AU - Klein, Daniel
AU - de Winter, Andrea F.
AU - van Dijk, Jitse P.
AU - Reijneveld, Sijmen A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under Contract No. APVV-16-0490 and the Contract No. APVV-17-0568.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.
PY - 2022/10
Y1 - 2022/10
N2 - Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important health indicator in chronic diseases like kidney diseases. Health literacy (HL) may strongly affect HRQoL, but evidence is scarce. Therefore, we assessed the associations of HL with HRQoL in dialysed patients. We performed a cross-sectional study in 20 dialysis clinics across Slovakia (n = 542 patients, mean age = 63.6 years, males = 60.7%). We assessed the association of categorised HL (low, moderate, high) with the SF36 physical component score (PCS) and mental component score (MCS) using generalised linear models adjusted for age, gender, education, and comorbidity (Charlson Comorbidity Index, CCI). We found significant associations of HL with PCS and MCS in dialysed patients, adjusted for age, gender, education, and CCI. Low-HL patients had a lower PCS (B = −3.27, 95%-confidence interval, CI: −5.76/−0.79) and MCS (B = −6.05, 95%-CI: −8.82/−3.29) than high-HL patients. Moderate-HL patients had a lower MCS (B = −4.26, 95%-CI: −6.83/−1.69) than high-HL patients. HL is associated with physical and mental HRQoL; this indicates that dialysed patients with lower HL deserve specific attention and tailored care to have their HRQoL increased.
AB - Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important health indicator in chronic diseases like kidney diseases. Health literacy (HL) may strongly affect HRQoL, but evidence is scarce. Therefore, we assessed the associations of HL with HRQoL in dialysed patients. We performed a cross-sectional study in 20 dialysis clinics across Slovakia (n = 542 patients, mean age = 63.6 years, males = 60.7%). We assessed the association of categorised HL (low, moderate, high) with the SF36 physical component score (PCS) and mental component score (MCS) using generalised linear models adjusted for age, gender, education, and comorbidity (Charlson Comorbidity Index, CCI). We found significant associations of HL with PCS and MCS in dialysed patients, adjusted for age, gender, education, and CCI. Low-HL patients had a lower PCS (B = −3.27, 95%-confidence interval, CI: −5.76/−0.79) and MCS (B = −6.05, 95%-CI: −8.82/−3.29) than high-HL patients. Moderate-HL patients had a lower MCS (B = −4.26, 95%-CI: −6.83/−1.69) than high-HL patients. HL is associated with physical and mental HRQoL; this indicates that dialysed patients with lower HL deserve specific attention and tailored care to have their HRQoL increased.
KW - dialysed patients
KW - health literacy
KW - health-related quality of life
KW - mental component score
KW - physical component score
U2 - 10.3390/ijerph192013265
DO - 10.3390/ijerph192013265
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85140757178
SN - 1661-7827
VL - 19
JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
IS - 20
M1 - 13265
ER -