Table 3.

Association Between Poorer Health Literacy and COPD-Related Outcomes Among 277 COPD Subjects

COPD-related outcome*	Events/N†	OR associated with health literacy tertile (95 % CI)	Analysis for trend across health literacy tertiles‡
≥1 week period of worsening respiratory symptoms	140/277 (50.5 %)	Highest: 1.0 [referent]	p = 0.59
		Middle: 1.0 (0.6–1.9)
		Lowest: 1.2 (0.6–2.5)
Sought advice and/or treatment for worsening symptoms§	109/140 (77.9 %)	Highest: 1.0 [referent]	p = 0.003
		Middle: 2.2 (0.8–6.3)
		Lowest: 8.8 (2.1–37)
COPD-related ED Visits	38/277 (13.7 %)	Highest: 1.0 [referent]	p = 0.009
		Middle: 3.0 (1.1–8.5)
		Lowest: 4.7 (1.5–15)
COPD-related hospitalizations	22/277 (7.9 %)	Highest: 1.0 [referent]	p = 0.02
		Middle: 2.7 (0.6–11.8)
		Lowest: 6.6 (1.3–33)

*Each COPD-related outcome above was used as the dependent (outcome) variable in a separate multivariable logistic regression in which health literacy was the independent (predictor) variable of interest and covariates were: age, gender, race, marital status, educational attainment, and income

^†Number of subjects with events (e.g., there were 22 subjects with ≥1 COPD-related hospitalization) and sample size (N) for each analysis

^‡Tests for trend indicated a trend of increasing odds of COPD-related hospitalizations, ED visits, and likelihood of seeking medical advice/treatment for worsening symptoms with decreasing health literacy across tertiles

^§The analysis of the association between poorer health literacy and likelihood of seeking medical advice/treatment for worsening symptoms, either via phone or in-person, was conducted only on the subset of subjects who reported a ≥1 week period of worsening respiratory symptoms (N = 140)