Relationship of Health Literacy of Heart Failure Patients and Their Family Members on Heart Failure Knowledge and Self-Care

Abstract

We explored the relationships among patients’ and family members’ (FMs) health literacy, heart failure (HF) knowledge, and self-care behaviors using baseline data from HF patients and their FMs (N = 113 pairs) in a trial of a self-care intervention. Measures included Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine, Atlanta HF Knowledge Test, a heart failure Medication Adherence Scale, and sodium intake (24-hr urine and 3-day food record). Patients with low health literacy (LHL) were more likely to have lower HF knowledge (p