Health literacy and Compliance in PostLiver Transplant Patients

1
Health literacy and Compliance in Post-Liver
Transplant Patients

• Eashen Liu, MD
• September 21, 2007

2
Liver transplantation

• Limited resource
• Multidisciplinary approach
• Ensure liver survival after transplant

3
Health Literacy

• Health literacy- the degree to which individuals
  have the capacity to obtain, process and
  understand basic health information and services
  needed to make appropriate health decisions.
• In the US- Approximately 44 millions US adults
  are functionally literate and another 50 million
  adults display only marginal literacy.
• Over 75 million adults combined had Basic and
  Below Basic health literacy., according to survey
  initiated in 2003.
• Medical literature usually requires patients read
  at or above a 6-8th grade level

4
Poor health literacy is associated with

• Increased risk of hospitalization
• Failure to obtain preventative screening tests
• Decrease adherence to antiretroviral regimens in
  persons affected with HIV
• Poorer control of diabetes
• Poorer control of HTN

5
Objective and Hypothesis

• Too see if a relationship exists between health
  literacy and compliance post-liver transplant in
  order to ensure survival of the liver.
• Too investigate if other socioeconomic factors
  influence compliance after liver transplant.
• To observe if a relationship exists between
  health literacy and episodes of rejection.
• Hypothesis poor health literacy is associated
  with noncompliance post-liver transplant and this
  health literacy is therefore associated with
  poorer outcomes post-transplant.

6
Methods

• Health literacy assessment of patients whom
  received a liver transplant more than 1 year ago.
• Retrospectively reviewing charts to assess
  adherence to lab draws, number of medical
  appointments attended and missed, number of
  hospitalizations and number of episodes of
  presumed or documented rejection.
• Statistical analysis

7
Results

• Approximately 17 patients
• All have health reading levels gt7grade
• No clear association between health literacy and
  compliance with lab draws, episodes of rejection

8
Explanations for results

• Liver transplanted patients tend to have higher
  health literacy?
• Can continuous and strong medical support
  overcome any deficiencies?

9
Future directions

• Evaluate health literacy of patients whom failed
  the liver evaluation