The Relationship between Health Literacy and Treatment Adherence in Cardiovascular Patients Hospitalized in Khorramabad Educational Hospitals

Insufficient health literacy and incomplete information related to disease management can affect treatment regimen adherence. This study was performed to determine the relationship between health literacy and treatment regimen adherence in CVD patients hospitalized in the educational hospitals of Khorramabad city in 2017. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 161 CVD patients hospitalized in two educational hospitals of Khorramabad city were chosen through available non-probabilistic sampling method to participate in the study. Data collection instruments included sociodemographic information form, health literacy questionnaire, and treatment regimen adherence questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients were used for data analysis. The health literacy of 75.2% of cases was borderline/average. Also, 68.9% of them adhered to the treatment regimen to an average level. There was a significant and positive relationship between the total score of health literacy and the total score of treatment regimen adherence (p <0.000, r=0.74). In this study, those with higher health literacy also showed greater adherence to the treatment regimen. Thus, promoting health literacy can be an effective tool to enhance the treatment regimen adherence behavior.