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. 2018 Sep;13(5):538-546.
doi: 10.1177/1558944717708027. Epub 2017 May 17.

Impact of Health Literacy on Time Spent Seeking Hand Care

Aaron Alokozai  1 , David N Bernstein  2 , Nicole Sheikholeslami  1 , Lauren Uhler  3 , David Ring  3 , Robin N Kamal  1
Affiliations

Impact of Health Literacy on Time Spent Seeking Hand Care

Aaron Alokozai et al. Hand (N Y). 2018 Sep.

Abstract

Background: Patients with limited health literacy may have less knowledge and fewer resources for efficient access and navigation of the health care system. We tested the null hypothesis that there is no correlation between health literacy and total time spent seeking hand surgery care.

Methods: New patients visiting a hand surgery clinic at a suburban academic medical center were asked to complete a questionnaire to determine demographics, total time spent seeking hand surgery care, and outcomes. A total of 112 patients were included in this study.

Results: We found health literacy levels did not correlate with total time seeking hand surgery care or from booking an appointment to being evaluated in clinic.

Conclusions: In this suburban academic medical center, patients with low health literacy do not spend more time seeking hand surgery care and do have longer delays between seeking and receiving care. The finding that-at least in this setting-health literacy does not impact patient time seeking hand care suggests that resources to improve health disparities can be focused elsewhere in the care continuum.

Keywords: hand surgery; health disparity; health literacy; outcome; quality.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: DR received royalties from Tornier (formerly Wright Medical): Elbow Plates (received <$10 000/year) and Skeletal Dynamics: Internal Joint Stabilizer Elbow (contract; nothing received). He received research grant support from Skeletal Dynamics ($50 000). He is deputy editor for hand and wrist, Journal of Orthopaedic Trauma (volunteer) and deputy editor for hand and wrist, Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research ($5000/year). He received honoraria from AO North America, AO International, and various hospitals and universities. All other authors (RK, DB, AA, NS, LU) certify that they have no commercial associations (eg, consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangements, etc) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article.

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