Abstract
Optimizing wellness and health are the most critical goals for patients post solid-organ transplantation. Low health literacy has important implications for wellness and health, increasing patient risk for negative health outcomes. More than 30% of the general US patient population has low health literacy, and solid-organ transplant recipients (SOTRs) may be especially vulnerable to low health literacy and its adverse impact on health outcomes. A comprehensive literature review was conducted and a model was adapted to better depict factors associated with low health literacy. Based on the Paasche-Orlow and Wolf model of health literacy, the Health Literacy Model in Transplantation (HeaL-T) provides a foundation to visually demonstrate the relationships among variables associated with low health literacy and to develop evidence-based strategies to improve care. The model depicts a number of patient and healthcare level factors associated with health literacy, several of which have bi-directional or reciprocal relationships, including access and utilization of healthcare, provider-patient interaction, and self-management/adherence. The impact of these factors and their relationships to SOTR outcomes are reviewed. The HeaL-T represents an important step in developing holistic understanding of the complexity of health literacy in SOTRs and offers clinicians a base from which to design strategies to mitigate adverse health effects including increased hospitalizations, graft failure, and mortality.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 2325-2338 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Patient Preference and Adherence |
Volume | 12 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2018 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Health literacy
- Health outcomes
- Healthcare access
- Interventions
- Medication adherence
- Solid-organ transplantation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Medicine (miscellaneous)
- Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
- Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics (miscellaneous)
- Health Policy