Skip to main content
. 2017 Aug;12(1):52–57. doi: 10.15420/ecr.2017:2:2

Table 1: Future Directions for Incorporating Health Literacy in Atrial Fibrillation (AF) Clinical Investigation and Epidemiology.

Domain Specific direction
Clinical significance of health literacy
  • Utilise health literacy as an ancillary measure in AF clinical trials

  • Describe the epidemiology of limited health literacy and its associations in patients with AF

  • Assess the impact of health literacy on clinical outcomes in patients with AF

  • Incorporate health literacy assessments and examine their associations with knowledge, communication, quality of life and health-related outcomes in AF

  • Account for health literacy when examining the effects of educational interventions

Management of AF
Symptoms and quality of life
  • Examine the relations between health literacy and symptoms

  • Assess the effect of health literacy on the ability of patients to express symptoms and describe their quality of life and health status

  • Validate methods and instruments assessing patient health status across levels of health literacy.

  • Develop and validate assessments in diverse racial/ethnic and socioeconomic settings with a high prevalence of limited health literacy

Knowledge and shared decision-making
  • Evaluate the associations between health literacy, knowledge of AF and participation in shared decision-making in AF

  • Develop and validate tools assessing AF knowledge that account for health literacy

  • Build educational interventions for AF appropriate for all levels of health literacy (<sixth-grade reading level)

  • Assess the effect of educational interventions to improve AF knowledge on patient-related health status, patient participation in shared decision-making and health-related outcomes in clinical trials and real-life clinical practice

Anticoagulation and thromboprophylaxis
  • Assess the associations between health literacy and risk of stroke in AF

  • Assess the associations between health literacy and risk of bleeding in AF

  • Relate health literacy with adherence to anticoagulation, monitoring and dose adjustments

  • Integrate health literacy assessments and educational interventions in trials of anticoagulation in AF