Impact of Health Literacy on Health Outcomes in Ambulatory Care Patients: A Systematic Review

ObjectiveTo examine the relationship between low health literacy and disease state control and between low health literacy medication adherence in the primary caro setting.Data Sources:The following databases were searched for relevant articles from date of inception to April 2008: The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature, EMBASE, Education Resources Information Center, PsyclNFO, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, and Iowa Drug Information Service. MEDLINE was searched from 1966 to April 2008. Key words included literacy, health literacy, health education, educational status, disease outcomes, health outcomes, adherence, medication adherence, and patient compliance. Additional articles were identified by reviewing reference sections of retrieved articles.Study Selection And Data Extraction:Studies using a validated measure of health literacy and performing statistical analysis to evaluate the relationship between health literacy and disease s...