Fajardo Michael A, Yung Cassia, Cornell Samuel, Puranik Rajesh, Hawkes Anna L, Mishra Shiva Raj, Doust Jenny, Bonner Carissa
Faculty of Medicine and Health, School of Public Health, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Menzies Centre for Health Policy and Economics, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Glob Heart. 2025 Jul 9;20(1):59. doi: 10.5334/gh.1446. eCollection 2025.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Most people can reduce their CVD risk through lifestyle improvements and medication. Having low health literacy is a barrier to CVD prevention and management and is associated with worse health outcomes. Knowledge is a key component of health literacy, but there is no standard way for clinicians to assess this to tailor education about CVD. The aim of this review was to identify available CVD knowledge tests and evaluate their quality.
Electronic database searches were conducted using Medline, CINAHL, PsycINFO and PsycTESTS between inception and October 2022. Identified tools were assessed using the Psychometric Grading Framework (PGF) to assess the quality of included tests.
A total of 28 studies were identified, of which 18 were original test development papers and 10 were language translation papers. The five most common domains were CVD risk factors, nutrition, heart physiology, physical activity, and treatment options. Three papers achieved an A grading on the PGF. Only one test provided a guide to classify patients based on the results.
This review identified 15 additional knowledge assessment tools compared to previous research, including some available in multiple languages. Clinicians can access a wide range of CVD knowledge assessment tools to understand and respond to patient knowledge levels, but some are higher quality than others. Alternative tools may be needed to assess specific risk factor and condition knowledge. Further work is needed to tailor CVD knowledge tests for populations lower health literacy, and to validate the tests against health outcomes to improve clinical practice.
CRD42022370227.
Having low health literacy is associated with worse cardiovascular outcomes.Knowledge is a key component of health literacy, but there is no standard way to assess this for CVD.An assessment of the quality and reliability of CVD knowledge tests could support clinicians to tailor patient education to health literacy needs.
We identified 15 additional tests development papers that were not captured in earlier reviews of CVD knowledge tests.There are multiple high quality CVD knowledge tests available to clinicians, and tests available in different languages.These tests may be used to tailor patient education to individual health literacy needs.
心血管疾病（CVD）是发病和死亡的主要原因。大多数人可以通过改善生活方式和药物治疗来降低心血管疾病风险。健康素养低是心血管疾病预防和管理的障碍，且与更差的健康结果相关。知识是健康素养的关键组成部分，但临床医生没有标准方法来评估这一点以定制有关心血管疾病的教育。本综述的目的是识别可用的心血管疾病知识测试并评估其质量。
在2022年开始至10月期间，使用Medline、CINAHL、PsycINFO和PsycTESTS进行电子数据库检索。使用心理测量分级框架（PGF）对识别出的工具进行评估，以评估纳入测试的质量。
共识别出28项研究，其中18项是原始测试开发论文，10项是语言翻译论文。五个最常见的领域是心血管疾病风险因素、营养、心脏生理学、身体活动和治疗选择。三篇论文在PGF上获得了A级评分。只有一项测试提供了根据结果对患者进行分类的指南。
与先前的研究相比，本综述识别出另外15种知识评估工具，包括一些有多种语言版本的工具。临床医生可以使用多种心血管疾病知识评估工具来了解并回应患者的知识水平，但有些工具的质量高于其他工具。可能需要其他工具来评估特定风险因素和病情知识。需要进一步开展工作，为健康素养较低的人群定制心血管疾病知识测试，并根据健康结果验证这些测试，以改善临床实践。
国际前瞻性系统评价注册库（PROSPERO）：CRD42022370227。
健康素养低与更差的心血管疾病结果相关。知识是健康素养的关键组成部分，但没有评估心血管疾病知识的标准方法。对心血管疾病知识测试的质量和可靠性进行评估可以帮助临床医生根据健康素养需求定制患者教育。
我们识别出另外15篇测试开发论文，这些论文在早期的心血管疾病知识测试综述中未被收录。临床医生可以使用多种高质量的心血管疾病知识测试，并且有不同语言版本的测试。这些测试可用于根据个体健康素养需求定制患者教育。
