Functional health literacy and the risk of hospital admission among Medicare managed care enrollees.
OBJECTIVE
This study analyzed whether inadequate functional health literacy is an independent risk factor for hospital admission.


METHODS
We studied a prospective cohort of 3260 Medicare managed care enrollees.


RESULTS
Of the participants, 29.5% were hospitalized. The crude relative risk (RR) of hospitalization was higher for individuals with inadequate literacy (n = 800; RR = 1.43; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.24, 1.65) and marginal literacy (n = 366; RR = 1.33; 95% CI = 1.09, 1.61) than for those with adequate literacy (n = 2094). In multivariate analysis, the adjusted relative risk of hospital admission was 1.29 (95% CI = 1.07, 1.55) for individuals with inadequate literacy and 1.21 (95% CI = 0.97, 1.50) for those with marginal literacy.


CONCLUSIONS
Inadequate literacy was an independent risk factor for hospital admission among elderly managed care enrollees.
Baker
David W
DW
Center for Health Care Research and Policy, Case Western Reserve University at MetroHealth Medical Center, USA. dwbaker@northwestern.edu
Gazmararian
Julie A
JA
Williams
Mark V
MV
Scott
Tracy
T
Parker
Ruth M
RM
Green
Diane
D
Ren
Junling
J
Peel
Jennifer
J
D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000193:education; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008329:Managed Care Programs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006278:Medicare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014504:Urban Health