Health Literacy Levels and Predictors Among Hospitalized Patients With Chronic Diseases

ABSTRACT Objectives The study investigated the health literacy levels and predictors of hospitalized patients with chronic diseases. Methods This descriptive and cross‐sectional study was conducted with 128 hospitalized patients with chronic diseases between January 2024 and June 2024 in the internal medicine clinics of a public hospital in a province of Turkey. The data were collected using the “Participant Information Form”, the “Charlson Comorbidity Index” and the “Turkish Health Literacy Scale‐32 (THLS‐32)”. Results The lowest health literacy score was found in chronic renal failure patients (24.82 ± 11.94), and the highest in COPD/asthma patients (32.10 ± 10.75). A significant correlation was observed between the variables of age, duration of chronic disease (years), number of medications used, frequency of visiting a healthcare institution, and frequency of hospitalization for the past year and the health literacy score (Adjusted R 2 = 0.314, F = 12.350, p < 0.05). Age and frequency of hospitalization were found to be significant predictors of the health literacy score ( p < 0.05). Conclusions This study revealed that more than half of individuals with chronic diseases have inadequate/problematic/limited health literacy. Approximately one‐fourth of individuals with chronic diseases had inadequate health literacy. In addition, the health literacy level was low in older patients, had a high frequency of visits to health care institutions, had a high frequency of hospitalization, had a high frequency of emergency unit visits, had a long duration of chronic disease (years), had a high number of medications, and had a high number of comorbid diseases for the past year. Health education should be provided to patients frequently visiting the hospital to improve their health status.