Functional Health Literacy and the Risk of Hospital Admission Among Medicare Managed Care Enrollees

This study analyzed whether inadequate functional health literacy is an independent risk factor for hospital admission. We studied a prospective cohort of 3260 Medicare managed care enrollees. Of the participants, 29.5% were hospitalized. The crude relative risk (RR) of hospitalization was higher fo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of public health (1971) 2002-08, Vol.92 (8), p.1278-1283
Main Authors: Baker, David W, Gazmararian, Julie A, Williams, Mark V, Scott, Tracy, Parker, Ruth M, Green, Diane, Ren, Junling, Peel, Jennifer
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Aged
Ambulatory care
Biological and medical sciences
Chronic illnesses
Cohort Studies
Disease
Educational Status
Ethnic Groups - education
Female
General aspects
Health care expenditures
Health care policy
Health Education
Health literacy
Hispanic people
Hospitalization
Hospitals
Hospitals - statistics & numerical data
Humans
Illiteracy
Interviews as Topic
Male
Managed care
Managed Care Programs - statistics & numerical data
Medicaid
Medical sciences
Medicare
Medicare - statistics & numerical data
Mental health
Multivariate Analysis
Older people
Patient Admission - statistics & numerical data
Patients
Planification. Prevention (methods). Intervention. Evaluation
Public health
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Reading comprehension
Research and Practice
Risk Factors
United States - epidemiology
Urban Health
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Summary:This study analyzed whether inadequate functional health literacy is an independent risk factor for hospital admission. We studied a prospective cohort of 3260 Medicare managed care enrollees. 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. Inadequate literacy was an independent risk factor for hospital admission among elderly managed care enrollees.
ISSN:0090-0036
1541-0048
DOI:10.2105/AJPH.92.8.1278