How does health literacy affect quality of life among men with newly diagnosed clinically localized prostate cancer?

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Health literacy deficits affect half of the US overall patient population, especially the elderly, and are linked to poor health outcomes among noncancer patients. Yet little is known about how health literacy affects cancer populations. The authors examined the relation between health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) and health literacy among men with prostate cancer. METHODS: Data analysis included 1581 men with newly diagnosed clinically localized prostate cancer from a population‐based study, the North Carolina‐Louisiana Prostate Cancer Project (PCaP). Participants completed assessment of health literacy using Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM) and HRQOL using the Short Form‐12 General Health Survey (SF12). Bivariate and multivariate regression was used to determine the potential association between REALM and HRQOL, while controlling for sociodemographic and illness‐related variables. RESULTS: Higher health literacy level was significantly associated with better mental well‐being (SF12‐Mental Component Summary [MCS]; P < .001) and physical well‐being (SF12‐Physical Component Summary [PCS]; P < .001) in bivariate analyses. After controlling for sociodemographic (age, marital status, race, income, and education) and illness‐related factors (types of cancer treatment, tumor aggressiveness, and comorbidities), health literacy remained significantly associated with SF12‐MCS scores (P < .05) but not with SF12‐PCS scores. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with newly diagnosed localized prostate cancer, those with low health literacy levels were more vulnerable to mental distress than those with higher health literacy levels, but physical well‐being was no different. These findings suggest that health literacy may be important in patients managing prostate cancer and the effects of treatment, and provide the hypothesis that supportive interventions targeting patients with lower health literacy may improve their HRQOL. Cancer 2012. © 2011 American Cancer Society.

Health Literacy and Health-Related Quality of Life Among a Population-Based Sample of Cancer Patients

“…age, income and education), social networks, comorbidities, and physical and psychological symptoms (Jansen, Koch, Brenner, & Arndt, 2010; Sun, Borneman, Koczywas, et al, 2012; Gupta, Lis, Granick, et al, 2006; Peters & Sellick, 2006). Increasingly, health literacy and effective patient-provider communication are also recognized as influencing care across the cancer continuum (e.g., cancer screening; symptom management; communication about end of life care) and subsequently may be a determinant of HRQOL among cancer patients (Aziz, Miller, & Randall, 2012; Berkman et al, 2011; Davis, Williams, Marine, Parker, & Glass, 2002; Song, Mishel, Bensen, Chen, Knafl, Blackard, et al, 2012). …”

“…Few studies have examined the association between patient-level health literacy levels and HRQOL among cancer patients and the results have been mixed (Song, Mishel, Bensen, Chen, Knafl, Blackard, et al, 2012; Hahn, Garcia, Du, & Cella, 2010). One study found that literacy was not an independent risk factor for poorer HRQOL after controlling for measurement bias and other covariates (Hahn, Cella, Dobrez, Weiss, Du, Lai et al, 2007).…”

Most American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ Online Patient Education Material Exceeds Average Patient Reading Level

“…Health-related quality of life is independently predicted by the level of one's health literacy [49,55,57]. Moreover, lower health literacy correlates with higher rates of complication [48], hospitalization [6,7,48], increased costs [27,53,62], and overall worse health [8,11,29,48,50,61].…”

Letramento funcional em saúde na adolescência: associação com determinantes sociais e percepção de contextos de violência

“…This result demonstrates that individuals with better socialization with their peers and less difficulties in academic life have better functional health literacy. Another study (26) , which used the summaries of the physical and mental domains of the instrument SF12/version 2.0, also indicated a positive association between quality of life and the level of functional health literacy in men diagnosed with primary prostate cancer, in both domains. The existing literature only addresses the topic of quality of life and functional health literacy under chronic conditions like asthma (27) and heart disease (28) , or in specific areas such as oral health (29) .…”