Wiener klinische Wochenschrift
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Wien. Klin. Wochenschr. · Oct 2024
Health literacy in physical trauma patients : Evaluation of the general understanding of patients in an outpatient clinic using the German Short Test of Functional Health Literacy.
Health literacy (HL) refers to the ability to understand and process information provided by the healthcare system and depends on various factors, such as language comprehension, education, and social environment. Low HL was recently associated with increased readmission, morbidity, and mortality. Little is known about HL levels in physical trauma patients. The aim of this study was to determine general HL in physical trauma patients in an outpatient setting and to evaluate possible differences based on demographic characteristics. ⋯ In this study, included outpatient trauma patients demonstrated an overall adequate understanding of healthcare related information. Age, sociodemographic background, and/or educational status did not influence performance, which leads to the question as to whether the German version of the S‑TOFHLA is valid to representatively measure HL in these patients. Furthermore, regarding the obvious shortcomings of the S‑TOFHLA, the education standard of the respective population should be taken into consideration when choosing an appropriate testing tool.