Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important health indicator in chronic diseases like kidney diseases. Health literacy (HL) may strongly affect HRQoL, but evidence is scarce. Therefore, we assessed the associations of HL with HRQoL in dialysed patients. We performed a cross-sectional study in 20 dialysis clinics across Slovakia (n = 542 patients, mean age = 63.6 years, males = 60.7%). We assessed the association of categorised HL (low, moderate, high) with the SF36 physical component score (PCS) and mental component score (MCS) using generalised linear models adjusted for age, gender, education, and comorbidity (Charlson Comorbidity Index, CCI). We found significant associations of HL with PCS and MCS in dialysed patients, adjusted for age, gender, education, and CCI. Low-HL patients had a lower PCS (B = -3.27, 95%-confidence interval, CI: -5.76/-0.79) and MCS (B = -6.05, 95%-CI: -8.82/-3.29) than high-HL patients. Moderate-HL patients had a lower MCS (B = -4.26, 95%-CI: -6.83/-1.69) than high-HL patients. HL is associated with physical and mental HRQoL; this indicates that dialysed patients with lower HL deserve specific attention and tailored care to have their HRQoL increased.

• Klíčová slova
• dialysed patients, health literacy, health-related quality of life, mental component score, physical component score,
• MeSH
• chronická nemoc MeSH
• komorbidita MeSH
• kvalita života * MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• průřezové studie MeSH
• průzkumy a dotazníky MeSH
• zdravotní gramotnost * MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is likely to deteriorate with the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). This change may be worsened by low health literacy (HL). We performed a longitudinal study at over 20 dialysis clinics in Slovakia (n = 413; mean age = 64.8 years; males = 58.4%). We assessed the association of three HL groups with a change in HRQoL over two years using binary logistic regression adjusted for type of vascular access, dialysis effectiveness, comorbidity, age and gender. We found that patients with low HL had poorer HRQoL at baseline in comparison to high-HL patients. We did not find significant associations of lower HL with the deterioration of mental or physical HRQoL after two years. In the adjusted model, patients with lower HL were not more likely to have deteriorated physical (low-HL patients: odds ratio/95% confidence interval: 0.99/0.53-1.84; moderate-HL patients: 0.97/0.55-1.73) or mental HRQoL (low-HL patients: 1.00/0.53-1.87; moderate-HL patients: 0.95/0.53-1.70) in comparison to high-HL patients. The HRQoL of lower-HL patients is worse at baseline but develops similarly to that of high-HL patients during dialysis treatment. Their relative HRQoL, thus, does not worsen further, but it does not improve either. Tailoring care to their needs may help to decrease the burden of low HL in dialysed patients.

• Klíčová slova
• change in quality of life, dialysed patients, health literacy, health-related quality of life,
• MeSH
• kvalita života * MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• longitudinální studie MeSH
• průřezové studie MeSH
• průzkumy a dotazníky MeSH
• zdravotní gramotnost * MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH