Table 2.
Reviews that examined the association between health literacy and adherence in older adults (n = 11)
| Authors | Main focus | Total articles (on adherence/specific to this meta-review) | Conclusion on association between health literacy and adherence in older adults |
|---|---|---|---|
| Al Sayah et al. [46] | Improve understanding of relationship between health literacy or numeracy and health outcomes in diabetes. | 34 (5/5) | No association with self-care activities. |
| Berkman et al. [38] | Assess whether low health literacy links to poor health care usage, health outcomes, costs, and disparities in outcomes among all age groups. | 111 (17/8) | Evidence of an association was inconsistent. |
| Fransen et al. [39] | Explore possible associations between health literacy, diabetes self-management, and possible mediators. | 11 (11/7a) | Very limited evidence for an association with diabetes self-management. |
| Gellad et al. [40] | Identification of nonfinancial barriers to medication adherence in older adults. | 9 (1/1) | No general conclusions about health literacy and adherence are drawn. |
| Keller et al. [41] | Consider how low health literacy relates to disease state control or medication adherence. | 10 (4/3) | Conflicting results about link with adherence. |
| Lewis [42] | Understand factors associated with adherence to medication in blacks with hypertension. | 18 (18/1) | No association was found. |
| Loke et al. [21] | Review links between health literacy and cardiovascular/diabetes medication adherence. | 9 (9/7a) | No consistent relationship was found with either condition. |
| Ostini and Kairuz [45] | Determine what are factors that may influence the possible relationship between health literacy and medication non-adherence. | 24 (24b/11) | No consistent relationship was found. |
| Wawrzyniak et al. [44] | Study the current state of knowledge regarding health literacy and health outcomes of HIV-infected individuals. | 15 (10/1) | Inconsistent: Some evidence for an association. |
| Weekes [43] | Overview of health literacy of African American adults. | 23 (9/1) | Health literacy influences adherence to medical protocols. |
| Zhang et al. [37] | Meta-analysis to estimate effect size of the relationship between health literacy and medication adherence. | 35 (35/19) | A weak positive association was found. |
aIncluding one relevant intervention study
bOne of these 24 studies is the review of Loke et al. [21] that is also included in this meta-review. The other 23 articles were original research