Table 2.

Ovid Medline search strategy. Identified search terms with truncated keywords and MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms for the MEDLINE search via Ovid

	Condition: active or past venous leg ulcers	Context: reported levels of health literacy (HL)	Concept: the effect of deficits in HL on patient’s adherence to compression and effect on healing outcomes
Text words	Venous leg Ulcer* Venous ulcer* VLU Venous insufficiency Leg ulcer* Varicose ulcer*	Health Literacy Educat* Health promotion Health Information Health education Nurse-led education	Adher* Concord* Compl* Impact Effect Outcome
Medline	MeSH: Exp Leg Ulcer/	MeSH: Program Evaluation Exp Nursing Research Health education/ or consumer health information/ or health literacy/ or health promotion/ or healthy people programs/ or patient education as topic/ or teach-back communication/ Health facilities/ or hospital units/ or hospitals/ or hospitals, community/ or hospitals, general/ or hospitals, high-volume/ or hospitals, low-volume/ or exp hospitals, private/ or exp hospitals, public/ or exp hospitals, rural/ or exp residential facilities/ or health services/ or exp community health services/ or health services for the aged/ or exp nursing care/ or exp nursing services/ or preventive health services/ or exp rural health services/	MeSH: Attitude to health/ or health knowledge, attitudes, practice/ or “treatment adherence and compliance”/ or “patient acceptance of health care”/ or patient compliance/Recurrence treatment outcome/ or treatment failure/ Wound Healing Secondary Prevention Self Care Stockings, Compression