Health Literacy in Patients’ Clinical Records of Hospital Settings: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Introduction Health literacy (HL) can be defined as the individual's ability to understand and process health information. A low level of HL can be viewed as a stronger predictor of a person's health status than age, education level, and race. Although HL is an important determinant of health, it is often underestimated. This systematic review investigates the evidence on HL assessment in hospital settings. Methods PubMed Medline, CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science and Educational Resources Information Centre databases were searched, with the date last searched being 16 March 2020. The PRISMA guidelines were applied, and the protocol of the study was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42021236029). The quality of the included studies was appraised using the STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines for cross-sectional studies. Results Five studies reported HL assessments in hospital patients’ clinical records. Four main strategies were used to implement HL routine assessment in hospitals: multidisciplinary teams, stakeholders, training, and monitoring. Different performance measures were used to monitor the feasibility of incorporating HL assessment into electronic health records (EHRs). Conclusion This review examined how inpatients’ HL is recorded in hospital settings. HL is poorly measured in a hospital setting. These results guide hospital leadership in involving nurses in HL assessment implementation in hospitals and support nurses in creating a specific performance measure dashboard to monitor effective HL assessments in hospitals.