Pharmacist’s Counselling Improves Patient Knowledge Regarding Warfarin, Irrespective of Health Literacy Level

Abstract

To investigate the health literacy of the population and examine the change in knowledge when patients are administered a questionnaire about warfarin at different time points before and after counselling by a pharmacist. Patients were recruited over eight weeks, from May 2011, in a public hospital in Galway, Ireland. Inclusion criteria: (i) newly commenced on warfarin; (ii) 18 years or more; (iii) English as their first language; (iv) absence of visual or hearing difficulties. The Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM) was used to assess health literacy (HL). Warfarin knowledge was assessed using the Anticoagulation Knowledge Assessment (AKA). Both of these tools were administered following provision of the warfarin booklet and one hour’s reading time before pharmacist counselling. The AKA was re-administered 28–56 days after the counselling. Statistical analysis was performed using PASW® v. 18. Results: Forty-three patients (55.8% male), mean (±SD) age 65.7 years (±14.2) scored an average of 58.5/66 (±9.3) in the REALM. Warfarin knowledge improved from a mean of 19/29 (±4.7), prior to verbal counselling, to 23.8 (±3.7), within 24 hours of verbal counselling. This knowledge score decreased to a mean score of 22.8 (±3.7) 28–56 days following counselling.

Keywords

• health literacy
• REALM
• warfarin knowledge
• AKA
• pharmacist
• anticoagulant
• Ireland