title: Health literacy and health outcomes in HIV seropositive persons.
abstract: Inadequate health literacy has been associated with worse health status and more hospitalizations. We examined the influence of personal characteristics and health literacy on body change distress, depressive symptoms, and HIV symptom intensity in a convenience sample of 489 HIV-seropositive adults throughout the United States. Health literacy was measured with the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM) instrument. Those with higher health literacy scores reported more body change distress, depressive symptoms, and HIV symptom intensity. Being Latino and having higher health literacy scores were associated with poorer health outcomes. These results challenge the utility of the REALM to examine the relationship between health literacy and adverse health status.
authors.affiliation: Hunter College, CUNY, Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, 425 East 25 St., Box 874, New York, NY 10010, USA.
authors.forename: Kathleen M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Nokes
authors.forename: Christopher Lance
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Coleman
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cashen
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dole
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sefcik
authors.forename: Mary Jane
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Hamilton
authors.forename: Kenn M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Kirksey
authors.forename: Emily Hai
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Jumpamool
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Apinya
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Holzemer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004521:Educational Measurement; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012923:Social Class; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology