Gender Differences in the Impact of Cognitive Function on Health Literacy among Older Adults with Heart Failure

Jong Kyung Lee and Youn-Jung Son
Additional contact information
Jong Kyung Lee: College of Nursing, Dankook University, Cheonan 31116, Korea
Youn-Jung Son: Red Cross College of Nursing, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 06974, Korea

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-11

Abstract: Heart failure (HF)-related cognitive decline is a common condition and may be associated with health literacy. However, gender differences in this context have not been explored fully. This secondary data analysis aimed to identify gender differences in the impact of cognitive function on health literacy among older patients with HF. A total of 135 patients (75 men and 60 women) with a mean age of 73.01 ± 6.45 years were recruited. Older women with HF had higher cognitive impairment (15%) and inadequate health literacy (56.7%) compared to men. Cognitive function was the strongest predictor of health literacy in men ( β = 3.668, p < 0.001) and women ( β = 2.926, p = 0.004). Notably elderly women are likely to face double the burden of the influence of cognitive function on health literacy in comparison with men. It is necessary to assess cognitive function and health literacy during HF illness trajectories on a regular basis. Healthcare professionals working with patients with HF should be aware of gender differences in cognitive function and health literacy and the importance of assessing these factors.

Keywords: heart failure; aged; gender; cognition; health literacy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/12/2711/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/12/2711/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:12:p:2711-:d:187012

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().