Health Literacy and Access to Kidney Transplantation

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Few studies have examined health literacy in patients with end stage kidney disease. We hypothesized that inadequate health literacy in a hemodialysis population is common and is associated with poorer access to kidney transplant wait-lists. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, 95% confidence interval 0.08, 0.60; P = 0.003). The hazard ratio of being wait-listed by health literacy was not statistically different (AHR 0.80, 95% CI, 0.39, 1.61), P = 0.5). CONCLUSIONS: Inadequate health literacy is common in our hemodialysis patient population and is associated with a lower hazard of referral for transplant evaluation. Strategies to reduce the impact of health literacy on the kidney transplant process should be explored.