Background: Numerous studies have reported a significant role of health literacy (HL) in the prevention or treatment of various diseases. However, in Poland, there was no scientific research involving simultaneously the status of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and HL in assessment of health knowledge; therefore, it became the objective of our study.
Aims: We aimed to evaluate the level of CVD knowledge depending on CVD status and functional HL in the Polish population.
Methods: The study population consisted of 2827 participants from the WOBASZ II Survey aged 20-89 years: 2266 were CVD-free (non-CVD), 361 were hospitalized for CVD (CVDH[+]), and 200 were diagnosed with CVD but not hospitalized (CVDH[-]). The Newest Vital Sign test (NVS) was applied to determine functional HL. Self-reported knowledge of CVD risk factors (RFs) and prevention methods (PMs) in participants with different CVD status depending on HL was estimated. Multivariable ordinal and binary logistic regression analyses were performed to find predictors of RFs and PMs knowledge.
Results: The knowledge of CVD RFs and/or PMs was strictly related to HL and CVD status. Inadequate HL decreased the satisfactory (≥5 RFs/PMs) knowledge of RFs (odds ratio [OR], 0.50; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.40-0.62) and PMs (OR, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.45-0.71). CVDH(-) participants were more likely to have satisfactory PMs knowledge (OR, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.02-2.16), while CVDH(+) participants satisfactory RFs knowledge (OR, 1.85; 95% CI, 1.35-2.53).
Conclusions: HL and CVD status are the key determinants of CDV RFs/PMs knowledge. Functional HL significantly affects health knowledge; therefore, HL screening should be recommended in primary care to increase the effectiveness of primary CVD prevention.
Keywords: cardiovascular disease; health inequalities; health literacy; health promotion; risk factors.