Health literacy in chronic kidney disease patients: association with self-reported presence of acquaintance with kidney disease, disease burden and frequent contact with health care provider

Limited data suggest that health literacy (HL) is associated with kidney functions and clinical outcomes in patients with non-dialysis chronic kidney disease (CKD). We aimed to identify factors associated with the level of HL in a CKD population that has not been studied previously.

Patients with stage I–V (non-dialysis) CKD according to the Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative classification were enrolled in the study from two tertiary healthcare centers. Data were collected cross-sectionally using the European Health Literacy Survey (HLS-EU).

Data of 208 participants were analyzed. HLS-EU scores had the highest correlations with age (r = − 0.494, p = 0.0001) and education (r = 0.476, p = 0.0001). Estimated glomerular filtration rate (e-GFR) was significantly correlated with HLS-EU score (r = 0.186, p = 0.01). Presence of a self-reported acquaintance with any kind of kidney disease was associated with higher HL. On the other hand, participants with multiple comorbidities, and therefore with more frequent contact with the health system, had lower HL than those without such frequent contact. Similarly, those with a high disease burden had lower HL than those without. HLS-EU scores were also significantly associated with gender, marital status, occupational status, self-perception of health, restriction of daily activities, participation in social activities, place of residence, blood pressure, body mass index, and serum parathyroid hormone and albumin levels.

Low HL is prevalent among CKD patients and is associated with e-GFR. Presence of an acquaintance with any kind of kidney disease is positively associated with HL. Presence of multiple comorbidities might be a limiting factor for the improvement of HL, which might also be expected to improve as a result of frequent contact with healthcare providers.