Does inadequate functional health literacy increase the risk of hospital admission in elderly Medicare managed care enrollees?
Inadequate functional health literacy is an independent risk factor for hospital admission among elderly Medicare managed care enrollees.
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.
Baker et al. (Thu,) studied this question.