Rehabilitation Consumers' Use and Understanding of Quality Information: A Health Literacy Perspective
Presented to the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and American Society of Neurorehabilitation Joint Conference, October 3–7, 2007, Washington, DC.
Abstract
Magasi S, Durkin E, Wolf MS, Deutsch A. Rehabilitation consumers' use and understanding of quality information: a health literacy perspective.
Objectives
To explore consumers' use and understanding of quality information about postacute rehabilitation facilities.
Design
Thematic, semistructured interviews.
Setting
Two skilled nursing facilities and 2 inpatient rehabilitation facilities in a large Midwestern city.
Participants
Rehabilitation inpatients (n=17) with stroke, hip fractures, and joint replacements and care partners (n=12) of rehabilitation inpatients.
Intervention
None.
Main Outcome Measure
None.
Results
Health literacy imposed barriers to participants' understanding of quality information. Using the Institute of Medicine's Health Literacy Framework, we identified specific barriers that limited participants' abilities to (1) obtain quality information, (2) process and understand quality information, and (3) make appropriate decisions about the quality of a rehabilitation facility. Participants tended to rely on informal and nonquality information when choosing a rehabilitation facility.
Conclusions
Given the barriers imposed by low health literacy, rehabilitation providers have a responsibility to present quality information in a way that consumers, especially those with low health literacy, can use and understand.
eDepartment of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL
Reprint requests to Susan Magasi, PhD, Center for Outcomes, Research and Education, NorthShore University HealthSystems, 1001 University Place, Ste 100, Evanston, IL 60201
Supported by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research through a Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Measuring Rehabilitation Outcomes and Effectiveness (grant no. H133B040032).
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit on the authors or on any organization with which the authors are associated.
ABSTRACT