Evaluating Pharmacy Health Literacy and Its Barriers among Patients with Cardiovascular Diseases in Qatar

Abstract

Background: Patients’ health literacy, which is their capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions, is a critical determinant of whether they are able to actively participate in their healthcare. The objective of this study was to measure the level of health literacy among patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and/or heart failure (HF) and to explore barriers and facilitators to health literacy among this population. Methods: The Abbreviated version of the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (S TOFHLA) and the Three-item Brief Health Literacy Screen (3-item BHLS) were used to assess health literacy levels among patients with ACS and/or HF. A qualitative approach was used to identify facilitators and barriers to health literacy with the use of one-to-one interviews for patients’ perspective and focus group discussions for healthcare providers’ perspective. Results: The prevalence of inadequate to marginal health literacy was found to be 36% using S TOFHLA and 54% using 3-item BHLS. The most prominent factors were found to contribute to health literacy including patient attitudes and attributes, healthcare provider skills and attitudes, healthcare facility attributes, communication-related aspects, care process, and resources. Conclusions: Limited health literacy is common among patients with ACS and/or HF in Qatar. Many aspects were found to play a role in the patient’s health literacy; therefore, combination of interventions may be necessary to yield the most improvement in patient understanding, health literacy, and health outcomes.