A Low-Literacy Medication Education Tool for Safety-Net Hospital Patients
Background
To improve medication adherence in cardiac patients, in partnership with a safety-net provider, this research team developed and evaluated a low-literacy medication education tool.
Methods
Using principles of community-based participatory research, the team developed a prototype of a low-literacy hospital discharge medication education tool, customizable for each patient, featuring instruction-specific icons and pictures of pills. In 2007, a randomized controlled clinical trial was performed, testing the tool's effect on posthospitalization self-reported medication adherence and knowledge, 2 weeks postdischarge in English- and Spanish-speaking safety-net inpatients. To validate the self-report measure, 4 weeks postdischarge, investigators collected self-reports of the number of pills remaining for each medication in a subsample of participants. Nurses rated tool acceptability.
Results
Among the 166/210 eligible participants (79%) completing the Week-2 interview, self-reported medication adherence was 70% (95% CI=62%, 79%) in intervention participants and 78% (95% CI=72%, 84%) in controls (p=0.13). Among the 85 participants (31%) completing the Week-4 interview, self-reported pill counts indicated high adherence (greater than 90%) and did not differ between study arms. Self-reported adherence was correlated with self-reported pill count in intervention participants (R=0.5, p=0.004) but not in controls (R=0.07, p=0.65). There were no differences by study arm in medication knowledge. The nurses rated the tool as highly acceptable.
Conclusions
Although the evaluation did not demonstrate the tool to have any effect on self-reported medication adherence, patients who received the schedule self-reported their medication adherence more accurately, perhaps indicating improved understanding of their medication regimen and awareness of non-adherence.
aVA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, California
bDepartment of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California
cSchool of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, California
dLos Angeles County Department of Health Services, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
eLos Angeles County/University of Southern California Medical Center, Los Angeles, California
fDepartment of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Kristina M. Cordasco, MD, MPH, MSHS, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, 11301 Wilshire Boulevard (111G), Los Angeles CA 90073
ABSTRACT