Numeracy, health literacy, cognition, and 30-day readmissions among patients with heart failure

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Numeracy, health literacy, and cognition are important for chronic disease management. Prior studies have found them to be associated with poorer self-care and worse clinical outcomes, but limited data exists in the context of heart failure (HF), a condition that requires patients to monitor their weight, fluid intake, and dietary salt, especially in the posthospitalization period. OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between numeracy, health literacy, and cognition with 30-day readmissions among patients hospitalized for acute decompensated HF (ADHF). DESIGN/SETTING/PATIENTS: The Vanderbilt Inpatient Cohort Study is a prospective longitudinal study of adults hospitalized with acute coronary syndromes and/or ADHF. We studied 883 adults hospitalized with ADHF. MEASUREMENTS: During their hospitalization, a baseline interview was performed in which demographic characteristics, numeracy, health literacy, and cognition were assessed. Through chart review, clinical characteristics were determined. The outcome of interest was 30-day readmission to any acute care hospital. To examine the association between numeracy, health literacy, cognition, and 30-day readmissions, multivariable Poisson (log-linear) regression was used. RESULTS: Of the 883 patients admitted for ADHF, 23.8% (n = 210) were readmitted within 30 days; 33.9% of the study population had inadequate numeracy skills, 24.6% had inadequate/marginal literacy skills, and 53% had any cognitive impairment. Numeracy and cognition were not associated with 30-day readmissions. Though (objective) health literacy was associated with 30-day readmissions in unadjusted analyses, it was not in adjusted analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Numeracy, health literacy, and cognition were not associated with 30-day readmission among this sample of patients hospitalized with ADHF.