Functional health literacy in hypertensive elders at primary health care

OBJECTIVE: to assess the relationship between inadequate functional health literacy and inadequate blood pressure control in older people with hypertension in Primary Health Care. METHOD: a cross-sectional study with sample calculated at 392. SAHLPA-18 tool was used for functional health literacy; blood pressure was measured; sociodemographic and clinical data were collected. Hierarchical logistic regression was used. RESULTS: (high) inadequate blood pressure and (low) functional inadequate health literacy were present in 41.6% and 54.6% of the people, respectively. Factors associated with inadequate blood pressure were: inadequate functional health literacy, black-brown skin color, overweight-obesity, hypertension diagnosis time, non-adherence to exercise/diet, drug treatment. Schooling had no association with inadequate blood pressure. CONCLUSION: hypertensive elderly people with inadequate health literacy were more likely to have inadequate blood pressure. Thus, health professionals need to value functional health literacy as a possible component to control blood pressure.