Abstracts

Rationale: To determine the association between health literacy and various demographic and clinical variables as well as quality of life scores in individuals with epilepsy. Methods: We directly interviewed patients followed at the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program, University of Florida HSC/Jacksonville. To determine health literacy, we administered 3 screening questions taken from the Short Test of Functional Literacy in Adults (STOHFLA). We also obtained demographic, clinical and QOLIE-10 data. Statistical analysis was performed at a 5% level of significance. Univariate analysis was used to determine which variables were associated with the STOHFLA screening questions and multivariate analysis was performed to determine those that were independently significant. Results: One hundred and forty adult patients with epilepsy comprised the study population. Patients who performed poorly on the screening questions for health literacy (“difficulty reading hospital materials”, “difficulty filling out medical forms”, and “problems understanding medical condition due to difficulties understanding written information”) had significantly lower scores on the QOLIE-10 and also had lower annual household incomes. This significance was also seen on multivariate analysis. Seizure frequency and severity were not significantly associated with health literacy. Conclusions: Limited health literacy is associated with poorer quality of life among epilepsy patients.