RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HEALTH LITERACY AND QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG INDIVIDUALS WITH ARTERIAL HYPERTENSION

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the relationship between health literacy and the quality of life of adults diagnosed with arterial hypertension, treated by the Family Health Strategy in the city of Picos, State of Piauí, Brazil. Materials and Methods: Analytical, cross-sectional study, carried out using the Test of Functional Literacy in Adults and the Mini-Questionnaire on Quality of Life in Arterial Hypertension, from January to June 2019. The sample of 251 hypertensive patients was obtained by proportional location and included those who had a record in the selected health unit, medical diagnosis of arterial hypertension, were between 18 and 59 years old and able to respond to the instruments. For data analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics were used. Results: The prevalence of unsatisfactory literacy was 82.1%. In the analysis of the correlation between literacy scores and the dimensions of quality of life, the following stood out: weak positive correlation (p< 0.001) between mental status and patient’s perception, moderate positive correlation (p< 0.001) between numeracy and reading ability and moderate positive correlation between mental status and somatic manifestation (p< 0.001). Conclusion: There was no statistical association between literacy and quality of life, however, literacy is increasingly recognized as an important factor that affects health outcomes and an important component to improve the quality of care and eliminate health heterogeneities.