The Relationships Among Health Literacy, Patient Activation, and Self-Care Behaviors in Adults With Heart Failure: A Cross Sectional Study

Despite current efforts, adherence to heart failure (HF) selfcare remains suboptimal. There is a need to identify modifiable factors that promote self-care adherence. Evidence suggests that patient activation and health literacy (HL) are modifiable and may be useful for improving HF self-care. However, more research is needed to understand the influences of these variables on HF self-care. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between patient activation, health literacy, and self-care adherence in a diverse group of adults with HF. This study used a correlational, cross-sectional design. Correlation and regression tests were used to analyze associations among variables. Stratified random sampling was applied to attain a study sample that was 50% persons of color (POC). Of the 174 participants, 51% were female and 48.5% were POC with a mean age of 62 years. There was no significant relationship between HL and HF self-care adherence. There was a small, positive correlation between HL and dichotomized high/low activation levels (r = .163; p < .05). There was a small, positive correlation between patient activation and HF self-care behaviors (r = .151; p < .05). However, regression tests showed patient activation was not a predictor of selfcare (B = 0.173, p = .064). Persons with HF may perform self-care activities when highly activated, regardless of HL status. Patient activation was not a reliable predictor of self-care adherence. More research is needed to elucidate the influence of patient activation and HL on HF self-care behaviors.