Fahad Saleem
Background: An adequate level of health literacy is related to positive treatment outcomes. The current study is aimed to examine factors associated with health literacy among cardiovascular patients in Karachi city, Pakistan.
Method: The study was designed as a cross sectional, descriptive survey. A pre-validated questionnaire was used for data collection. One hundred and sixty three patients attending the Cardiology Outdoor Patients Department of a tertiary care hospital in Karachi were recruited for the study. Descriptive statistics were used for data elaboration. SPSS v 21.0 was used for data analysis.
Results: Out of 163 patients, the cohort was almost equal in term of gender distribution. Sixty-one percent had urban residency of Karachi city and 62 (38.04%) were categorized as elderly patients. Overall, poor health literacy status was reported among the study respondents. Health literacy was evident with patient’s knowledge about medications; knowledge of adverse effects; language barriers and perception about role of exercise in improving quality of life.
Conclusion: Poor health literacy was associated with multiple factors that adversely affect patient’s pharmacotherapy plans. Urgent measures by using a collaborative approach of physicians, pharmacist and nurses are required to improve health literacy of Pakistani population.