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Coronary artery disease
Review
Health literacy interventions for secondary prevention of coronary artery disease: a scoping review
  1. Alison Beauchamp1,2,
  2. Jason Talevski1,2,
  3. Josef Niebauer3,4,
  4. Johanna Gutenberg4,5,
  5. Emmanuel Kefalianos6,
  6. Barbara Mayr3,4,
  7. Mahdi Sareban3,4 and
  8. Stefan Tino Kulnik4,7
  1. 1Monash Rural Health, Monash University, Warragul, Victoria, Australia
  2. 2Department of Medicine—Western Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  3. 3University Institute of Sports Medicine, Institute of Molecular Sports and Rehabilitation Medicine, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria
  4. 4Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital Health and Prevention, Salzburg, Austria
  5. 5CAPHRI Department of Health Promotion, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
  6. 6Department of Physiotherapy, Western Health, Footscray, Victoria, Australia
  7. 7Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education, Kingston University and St George's, University of London, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Alison Beauchamp; alison.beauchamp{at}monash.edu

Abstract

Deficits in health literacy are common in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), and this is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. In this scoping review, we sought to identify health literacy interventions that aimed to improve outcomes in patients with CAD, using a contemporary conceptual model that captures multiple aspects of health literacy. We searched electronic databases for studies published since 2010. Eligible were studies of interventions supporting patients with CAD to find, understand and use health information via one of the following: building social support for health; empowering people with lower health literacy; improving interaction between patients and the health system; improving health literacy capacities of clinicians or facilitating access to health services. Studies were assessed for methodological quality, and findings were analysed through qualitative synthesis. In total, 21 studies were included. Of these, 10 studies aimed to build social support for health; 6 of these were effective, including those involving partners or peers. Five studies targeted interaction between patients and the health system; four of these reported improved outcomes, including through use of teach-back. One study addressed health literacy capacities of clinicians through communication training, and two facilitated access to health services via structured follow-up—all reporting positive outcomes. Health literacy is a prerequisite for CAD patients to self-manage their health. Through use of a conceptual framework to describe health literacy interventions, we identified mechanisms by which patients can be supported to improve health outcomes. Our findings warrant integration of these interventions into routine clinical practice.

  • coronary artery disease
  • systematic reviews as topic
  • quality of health care

Data availability statement

Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2021-001895

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    Data availability statement

    Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study.

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors AB conceived the study. AB and STK designed the study. AB, STK and JT conducted literature searches. AB, STK, JG, EK, BM, MS and JT contributed to study selection and data extraction. AB, STK and JT conducted the quality assessments, summarised the results and drafted the manuscript. All authors critically revised the manuscript and approved the final version.

    • Funding This work was supported by the National Health & Medical Research Council Grant Number: 1 198 006 to AB.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.