Health literacy is an important priority in health care delivery, but its effect on clinical outcomes remains incompletely elucidated. This observational cohort study examined the association of health literacy with medication knowledge, adherence, and adverse drug events among cognitively intact veterans older than 65 years old who were taking 5 or more medications and who were enrolled in a Veterans Administration primary care clinic. Health literacy was determined by the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine. Medication knowledge and adherence were assessed by clinical pharmacist interview and refill data. Adverse drug events were determined by interview and chart review at 3 and 12 months. The 310 subjects had a mean age of 74 years, 99% were White, and 97% were male. Percentage of medications known was 29% for the low health literacy group versus 49% (marginal) and 56% (adequate), p < .001. Known medication purposes were lower in the lower health literacy group (49% vs. 71% vs. 74%; p < .001). Health literacy was not associated with medication adherence: the low health literacy group took 84% of medications by label instructions compared with 80% (marginal) and 77% (adequate), p = .14; or with adverse drug events at 1 year (48% vs. 33% vs. 40%; p = .30). Patients with lower health literacy have poorer medication knowledge but not lower adherence or increased adverse drug events.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
14
10%
Social Sciences
14
10%
Psychology
6
4%
Other
17
12%
Unknown
36
25%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 10. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 18 August 2023.
All research outputs
#3,353,004
of 24,286,850 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Health Communication
#275
of 1,386 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#23,155
of 175,086 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Health Communication
#7
of 36 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,286,850 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 86th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,386 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 11.5. This one has done well, scoring higher than 80% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 175,086 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 86% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 36 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 83% of its contemporaries.
