PB1464 - Health Literacy among anticoagulated patients from a specialized unit and its impact on treatment.

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

18:30 – 19:30 ET

Room: Exhibition

Co-Author(s)

MB

Matilde Boada

Assitant Professor
Catedra de Hematología, Facultad de Medicina, Hospital de Clinicas
Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay
MS

Maria Noel Spangenberg

Assistant
Catedra de Hematología, Facultad de Medicina, Hospital de Clinicas
Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay
CA

Cecilia Amuedo

Medical student
Facultad de Medicina. UDELAR
Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay
AA

Agustina Arocha

Medical student
Facultad de Medicina. UDELAR
Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay
RB

Romina Balarini

Medical student
Facultad de Medicina. UDELAR
Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay
ML

Macarena Lorente

Medical student
Facultad de Medicina. UDELAR
Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay
LP

Lucía Puig

Medical student
Facultad de Medicina. UDELAR
Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay
MS

Maria Grazia Secco

Medical student
Facultad de Medicina. UDELAR
Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay

Presenting Author(s)

Maria CECILIA Guillermo Esposito, MD (she/her/hers)

Professor
Hematology Department, Hospital de Clinicas, Facultad de medicina, UDELAR.
MONTEVIDEO, Montevideo, Uruguay

Background: Health Literacy (HL) is the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions. Evidence regarding HL in anticoagulated patients is scarce.

Aims: To acknowledge HL degree among patients from Hemostasis & Thrombosis Unit (UHT) and its impact on treatment.

Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted from June to October 2022. Patients older than 18 years receiving anticoagulant therapy who assisted to UHT were included. HL was assessed using Health Literacy Questionnaire from Swinburne University (Spanish version). This tool evaluates through 21 questions, nine HL areas (Table 1). HL is considered acceptable with values above 2 (areas 1-5), and above 2.5 (areas 6-9). For compliance evaluation another questionnaire was used. Low, intermediate and high compliance were defined. Clinical data were gathered from patients’ clinical charts. This study was approved by our institution’s ethical committee and each patient gave their informed consent. HL degree in each area was expressed in mean and standard deviation. T student test, ANOVA, and Chi square were used to compare groups and check for associations. Statistical significance was 0.005.

Results: 85 patients were included. Male:female ratio was 1:1. Mean age was 62 years. 63.5% of patients were receiving warfarin, 28.2% direct oral anticoagulants, and 7% low weight heparin. Anticoagulant therapy indication included: thromboembolic disease (54.1%), atrial fibrillation (31.8%) and others (14.1%). Table 2 shows HL degree in each area. Treatment compliance was high (37.6%), intermediate (48.2%) and low (14.1%). High treatment compliance was associated with higher HL in areas 2 (p=0,006), 3 (p=0,039), 7 (p=0,034) and 9 (p=0,001). Indication and duration did not show statistically significant association with HL

Conclusion(s): HL was acceptable in nine evaluated areas. Older patients showed lower HL in areas related to obtaining information and managing health issues. HL influenced treatment compliance.