Assessing Health Literacy in Patients with Hypertension Anna

Assessing Health Literacy in Patients with Hypertension Anna Altman, BSN, RN; Krista Leasure, BSN, RN; Melissa Mohling, BSN, RN; Nancy Bredenkamp, Ph. D, APRN Creighton University College of Nursing, Omaha, Nebraska 2018 Background ● Hypertension (HTN) is the #1 cardiac condition and affects 1 in 3 American adults. ● People who do not have high blood pressure (BP) in their late 50 s were at a 90% risk of developing HTN by the time they are 80 years old. ● Definition of “health literacy” used for this study: “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. ” ● Barriers such as limited health literacy prevent adequate patient education. Significance ● Controlling HTN reduces total mortality, cardiovascular mortality, stroke, and heart failure events. ● Educating patients on lifestyle risk factors is the first and most effective way to control BP ● It is unknown if providers are assessing health literacy level prior to lifestyle modification education. Purpose/Aims ● Identify health care providers’ current practice related to screening health literacy level prior to HTN education ● Determine what health care providers perceive as barriers to utilizing health literacy screening tools ● Determine if providers adjust their lifestyle education based on the patient's health literacy level How often do you assess your patient's health literacy? Methods ● A survey was created and titled “Health Literacy in Relation to Hypertension Education. ” ● Data was collected through an electronic survey using a convenience sample. ● Survey was distributed to nurses (RNs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) who were members of a professional organization. ● Descriptive statistics and measures of central tendency were utilized. Results ● 85 providers participated in the survey over 3 weeks. ○ 3 respondents did not meet inclusion criteria. ○ N = 82 (45. 1% were NPs) ○ Outpatient 63. 2%, inpatient 50%, academic setting 7. 2% ● Only 56. 1% of participants assess health literacy “most of the time” or “all the time. ” ● Majority (75. 6%) stated they assessed health literacy, but did not use a formal tool to do so. Implications for Practice ● Health literacy needs to be assessed prior to education on any health care subject. ● Assessing for health literacy should be standard for providers in order to improve patient outcomes. ● If the patient and family are bilingual, their ability to read and understand English needs to be assessed in order to maximize comprehension. ● Individualized education can have a significant impact on improving lifestyle behaviors compared to general education. Recommendations for Future Research and Practice ● Further research is needed on the frequency of use and barriers to health literacy screening that includes physicians and physicians’ assistants. ● Current health literacy tools need to be assessed for practical use, then integrated into the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) to improve utilization. ○ These tools need to be used in regular practice in order to measure the effects on patient education and health.