Erlen, Judith, Yun Jiang, Lingler, Jennifer, Sereika, Susan, Kaufman, Robert, Tamres, Lisa, and Houze, Martin
Background/Purpose: Limited research addresses health literacy among informal caregivers who manage medications for community-dwelling persons experiencing memory loss. Health literacy is an important concept when providing interventions to assist informal caregivers with medication management. This study used the Ability, Skill and Knowledge (ASK) Model to characterize health literacy in family caregivers of community-dwelling persons with memory loss and examine relationships between health literacy and caregivers' demographics, cognitive abilities, academic skills, and medication knowledge. Methods: We used baseline data from a randomized controlled trial of a problem solving intervention to improve caregiver's medication management. Instruments included a sociodemographic tool, the Newest Vital Sign (health literacy), the Blessed Orientation-Memory-Concentration Test (global cognition), Letter-Number Sequencing (working memory), Trail Making Test Part B (executive function), and the Medication Management Instrument for Deficiencies in the Elderly (medication knowledge). Descriptive statistics, correlations, and linear regression were used for data analysis. Results: Our sample of 91 caregivers included primarily women (70%; n=64) who were white (85%; n=77) with an average (±SD) age of 67.4 (±11.8) years. The average years of education was 14.9 (±3.3); their average number of comorbidities was 6.9 (±3.6). The average health literacy score was 4.02 (±1.8) indicating adequate literacy; 38% (n=35) had scores suggesting limited health literacy. Health literacy was negatively associated with age (r=-.40; p<.001), global cognitive functioning (r=-.54, p<.001), and executive function (r=-.34, p=.001) and was positively associated with education (r=.37; p<.001), working memory (r=.28, p=.007), and medication knowledge (r=.25, p=.020). Regression analysis showed that health literacy was explained by age (b=-.065, p=.001), global cognitive functioning (b=-.266, p<.001), working memory (b=.219, p=.005), and academic ability/education years (b=.121, p=.008). Conclusions/Implications: Findings suggest that health literacy could be characterized by the constructs of cognitive ability and academic skill of the ASK Model. However, medication knowledge may not independently explain caregiver's health literacy. Age seems to be an important factor in the assessment of health literacy. Assessing health literacy provides an important bridge when designing interventions to improve caregiver medication management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]