Assessment of health literacy among adult inpatients and implications for self-care management at Harare Central Hospital and Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals in 2019.

Abstract

The success of clinical care depends on the provision of relevant information by the health care practitioner and the patient’s appropriate understanding of the diagnosis and subsequent management of their health condition. The aim of this study was to assess the level of health literacy among admitted patients at two central hospitals in Zimbabwe. Methods: A cross sectional survey was used to determine the level of health literacy among admitted patients at Harare central hospital and Parirenyatwa group of hospitals. An interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 208 participants. Epi Info 7.2.2.6 was used to generate means, frequencies and proportions. Chi square test was performed to test for association between demographic variables and health literacy variables. Results: On functional literacy 36.1 % of the participants reported that they rarely need help in reading and writing while 45.6% said they sometimes needed help and only 18.3% highlighted that they often needed help. On communicative literacy 40.4% reported that they often probe for explanation, while 5.8% said they don’t probe and 53.9 % sometimes probe for explanation when talking to healthcare workers. Thirty-one (14.9%) of participants ‘often’ think carefully about health information given by healthcare workers, whereas 44.2% rarely does that and 40.9% sometimes does that. There was a statistically significant association between the level of education of the participants and their level of health literacy (p< 0.05). Self-care practices were statistically associated with the level of health literacy of patients (p<0.01)Conclusion and recommendations: There were low levels of critical health literacy among the participants but marginal levels on functional and communicative literacy were reported. Health education is necessary to assist those with poor educational backgrounds.