The relationship between health literacy and knowledge about heart failure with recurrent admission of heart failure patients

Having good health literacy can improve quality of life and decrease re‑hospitalization of the patients including patients with heart failure (HF). Considering the importance of knowledge about HF and health literacy in these patients and the existence of contradictory texts, this study aimed to determine the relationship between health literacy and knowledge of HF, with re‑admission of HF patients. The present study was a cross‑sectional study in which 238 patients aged over 18 years old with an ejection fraction of 35% and less with the ability to read, write, and speak, and no psychological, neurological and cognitive disorders were included in the study after they signed the consent form of the research. Data collection was done through demographic information questionnaire, Short‑Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adult‑16 standard health literacy questionnaire, and Van Der Wal knowledge about HF questionnaire (2005). Both questionnaires were validated and their reliability was investigated before starting the study. The Chi‑square test, Fisher’s exact test, or the Mann–Whitney tests were used to compare variables. Most of the patients were male (66%) and married (80%). The results showed that the majority of study population had proper health literacy and about half of them had enough information about HF. This study showed that there is a significant relationship between health literacy and knowledge. In other words, the higher the health literacy of the people, the greater their awareness of their illness (P = 0.02). However, the findings showed that there is no significant relationship between health literacy and awareness of HF with the number of admissions. The results of this study show that the higher the health literacy of the people may lead to the higher their knowledge and awareness about HF and better understanding the recommendations regarding their illness.