Functional health literacy is associated with health status and health-related knowledge in people living with HIV-AIDS.
BACKGROUND
Poor health literacy is a prevalent barrier to medical care and people with lower health literacy experience greater illness severity than people with higher health literacy. Health literacy may therefore be an important factor in the health and treatment of people living with HIV-AIDS.


METHODS
A community-recruited sample of 339 HIV-infected men and women completed surveys and interviews that assessed functional health literacy, health status, AIDS-related disease and treatment knowledge, and health care perceptions and experiences. Medical records were available for chart abstraction of health status for a subsample of participants.


RESULTS
About 1 of 4 people living with HIV-AIDS demonstrated difficulty comprehending simple medical instructions and therefore lower health literacy. HIV-infected people with lower health literacy had lower CD4 cell counts, higher viral loads, were less likely to be taking antiretroviral medications, reported a greater number of hospitalizations, and reported poorer health than those with higher health literacy. In addition, after adjusting for years of formal education, lower health literacy was associated with poorer knowledge of one's HIV-related health status, poorer AIDS-related disease and treatment knowledge, and more negative health care perceptions and experiences.


CONCLUSIONS
Health literacy is a significant factor in the health and treatment of persons living with HIV-AIDS. Interventions are needed to improve medical care and the health status of people with lower health literacy that are living with HIV-AIDS.
Kalichman
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SC
Center for AIDS Intervention Research, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53226, USA. sethk@mcw.edu
Rompa
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D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000628:therapy*; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010349:Patient Compliance; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012923:Social Class; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D019562:Viral Load