Investigation of the Relationship Between Health Literacy and Adherence to Immunosuppressive Therapy in Heart Transplant Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study
Nihal Celikturk Doruker , Tugba Nur Oden , Fatma Demir Korkmaz
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Abstract
Background
Nonadherence to immunosuppressive therapy after heart transplantation, driven by factors such as patient, caregiver, institutional, policy-related issues, and health literacy, leads to rejection and increased mortality. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between health literacy and adherence to immunosuppressive therapy in heart transplant patients.
Methods
The sample of this cross-sectional study consisted of 57 patients who underwent heart transplantation in a university hospital in Izmir, Turkey. “Sociodemographic and Descriptive Characteristics Form”, “Data on Immunosuppressive Drug Therapy Form”, “Rapid Estimate of Adult Health Literacy in Medicine (REALM) Scale”, and “Immunosuppressive Therapy Adherence Scale (ITAS)” were used to collect the data..
Results
The median score on the REALM scale was 64.00 (IQR = 3.00, min = 18.00, max = 66.00) and 80.7% of the patients scored adequately. The median score of the immunosuppressive therapy adherence scale was 11.00 (IQR= 1.00, min= 5.00, max= 12.00) and 42.1% of the patients scored full score. There was no statistically significant relationship between the median total scores of the REALM and ITAS scales in heart transplant patients (r = 0.181, P = .178).
Conclusions
In this study, the majority of heart transplant patients had adequate health literacy. It was found that less than half of these patients adhered to immunosuppressive therapy. Less than half of these patients were found to comply with immunosuppressive therapy. In this study, no relationship was found between health literacy and adherence to immunosuppressive therapy.
期刊介绍：
Transplantation Proceedings publishes several different categories of manuscripts, all of which undergo extensive peer review by recognized authorities in the field prior to their acceptance for publication.
The first type of manuscripts consists of sets of papers providing an in-depth expression of the current state of the art in various rapidly developing components of world transplantation biology and medicine. These manuscripts emanate from congresses of the affiliated transplantation societies, from Symposia sponsored by the Societies, as well as special Conferences and Workshops covering related topics.
Transplantation Proceedings also publishes several special sections including publication of Clinical Transplantation Proceedings, being rapid original contributions of preclinical and clinical experiences. These manuscripts undergo review by members of the Editorial Board.
Original basic or clinical science articles, clinical trials and case studies can be submitted to the journal?s open access companion title Transplantation Reports.
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