Hearn Madison, Sciscent Bao Y, King Tonya S, Goyal Neerav
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Penn State College of Medicine Hershey Pennsylvania USA.
OTO Open. 2024 Apr 13;8(2):e130. doi: 10.1002/oto2.130. eCollection 2024 Apr-Jun.
To characterize the prevalence of inadequate health literacy among otolaryngology patients and assess the association of individual patient factors with inadequate health literacy.
Cross-sectional study.
Tertiary academic medical center otolaryngology clinic.
Adult patients presenting to the clinic were recruited from March to June 2022. Participants completed a validated health literacy questionnaire in the waiting room. Data on age, sex, race, insurance, county of residence, and language were extracted from the electronic medical record, linked to the survey responses, and deidentified for analysis. Logistic regression analyses assessed the association between inadequate health literacy and patient factors.
Of 374 participants, the mean age was 54.8 years (SD = 17.8) and most were white (79%) and native English speakers (95%). The median health literacy score was 14.5 (Q1-Q3: 12.0-15.0) and 43 participants (12%) had inadequate health literacy. Bivariate analysis showed the odds of inadequate health literacy were 2.5 times greater for those with public insurance (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.24-5.20, = .011), 3.5 times greater for males (95% CI: 1.75-6.92, < .001), and significantly different among race groups ( = .003). When all factors were evaluated simultaneously with multivariable regression, only sex ( < .001) and race ( = .005) remained significant predictors of inadequate health literacy. There were no significant associations between health literacy and age or rurality.
Inadequate health literacy was associated with sex and race, but not with age or rurality. 12% of patients had inadequate health literacy, which may perpetuate disparities in care and necessitate interventions to improve care delivery in otolaryngology.
描述耳鼻喉科患者中健康素养不足的患病率，并评估个体患者因素与健康素养不足之间的关联。
横断面研究。
三级学术医疗中心耳鼻喉科诊所。
2022年3月至6月招募到诊所就诊的成年患者。参与者在候诊室完成一份经过验证的健康素养问卷。从电子病历中提取年龄、性别、种族、保险、居住县和语言等数据，将其与调查回复相链接，并进行去识别化处理以进行分析。逻辑回归分析评估健康素养不足与患者因素之间的关联。
在374名参与者中，平均年龄为54.8岁（标准差=17.8），大多数为白人（79%）且以英语为母语（95%）。健康素养得分中位数为14.5（四分位间距：12.0 - 15.0），43名参与者（12%）健康素养不足。二元分析显示，有公共保险的人健康素养不足的几率高2.5倍（95%置信区间[CI]：1.24 - 5.20，P = 0.011），男性高3.5倍（95% CI：1.75 - 6.92，P < 0.001），且在种族组之间存在显著差异（P = 0.003）。当所有因素通过多变量回归同时评估时，只有性别（P < 0.001）和种族（P = 0.005）仍然是健康素养不足的显著预测因素。健康素养与年龄或农村地区之间无显著关联。
健康素养不足与性别和种族有关，但与年龄或农村地区无关。12%的患者健康素养不足，这可能会使护理差距长期存在，因此需要采取干预措施以改善耳鼻喉科的护理服务。
