By: Anne Moore, DNP, MSN, MS
NEBPRC Research Unit Member

A very high percentage of hospitalized adults have limited health literacy, which may interfere with their understanding of any education provided including discharge instructions and their ability to participate in care decisions.

A research study, Prevalence of Limited Health Literacy and Compensatory Strategies Used by Hospitalized Patients, by Morris et al. (2011), raises awareness on how to think about educating patients and preparing them for discharge.

The authors studied the prevalence of limited health care literacy in hospitalized patients and the strategies used by those patients to compensate for their inability to read, write or understand the information.  A convenient sample of 103 patients on a medical service was obtained.  The participants completed the S-TOFHLA survey that measures literacy. The researchers found that 60% of the patients had inadequate or marginal health literacy. Compensatory mechanisms used by the participants included stating that they had decreased vision, hearing or memory problems.  The researchers discuss varying reasons for the low literacy rate especially since their population was better educated than populations examined in previous studies. One theory proposed that the hospitalized patients may have transient changes in cognition, vision etc. However, despite the cause of the low literacy rate, it must be recognized in strategies to educate patients. The article can found in Nursing Research 60(5) Sept/Oct 2011.

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