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. 2002 Aug;92(8):1278-83.
doi: 10.2105/ajph.92.8.1278.

Functional health literacy and the risk of hospital admission among Medicare managed care enrollees

David W Baker  1 , Julie A Gazmararian, Mark V Williams, Tracy Scott, Ruth M Parker, Diane Green, Junling Ren, Jennifer Peel
Affiliations

Functional health literacy and the risk of hospital admission among Medicare managed care enrollees

David W Baker et al. Am J Public Health. 2002 Aug.

Abstract

Objectives: 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.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
—Percentage of study participants hospitalized once (black) or 2 or more times (white), by functional health literacy.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
—Cumulative rate of hospitalization from time of enrollment for study participants, by functional health literacy.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Baker DW, Gazmararian JA, Sudano J, Patterson M. The association between age and health literacy among elderly persons. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2000;55:S368–S374. - PubMed

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