Nyman MH, et al. - Authors ascertained the functional health literacy levels among patients in Sweden undergoing day surgery and described the relationship between functional health literacy (FHL) and health care contacts, quality of recovery (SwQoR), and health-related quality of life. In patients undergoing day surgery, inadequate FHL was related to poorer postoperative recovery and a lower health-related quality of life. A relevant factor to consider for optimizing the postoperative recovery in patients undergoing day surgery was health literacy.

Methods

• Experts conducted this observational study, a part of a secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial of patients who underwent day surgery and was performed in multiple centers from October 2015 to July 2016 and included 704 patients.
• In the FHL groups 14 days after surgery, the primary end point was SwQoR.
• Health care contacts, EuroQol-visual analog scales, and the Short Form (36) Health Survey in the FHL groups, were the secondary end points.

Results

• As per the data, out of 704 patients (418 [59.4%] women; mean [SD] age with inadequate or problematic FHL levels, 47 [16] years and 49 [15.1], respectively), 427 (60.7%) reported sufficient FHL, 223 (31.7%) problematic FHL, and 54 (7.7%) inadequate FHL.
• Findings suggested that in both inadequate (37.4) and problematic (22.9) FHL, the global score of SwQoR indicated poor recovery.
• Results demonstrated a statistically significant difference in the global score of SwQoR (SD) between inadequate (37.4 [34.7]) and sufficient FHL (17.7 [21.0]) (P < .001).
• A lower health-related quality of life was seen in the patients with inadequate or problematic FHL compared to the patients with sufficient FHL in terms of EuroQol-visual analog scale scores (mean [SD], 73 [19.1], 73 [19.1], and 78 [17.4], respectively;P=.008), physical function (mean [SD], 72 [22.7], 75 [23.8], and 81 [21.9], respectively;P < .001), bodily pain (mean [SD], 51 [28.7], 53 [27.4], and 61 [27.0], respectively;P=.001), vitality (mean [SD], 50 [26.7], 56 [23.5], and 62 [25.4], respectively;P < .001), social functioning (mean [SD], 73 [28.2], 81 [21.8], and 84 [23.3], respectively;P=.004), mental health (mean [SD], 65 [25.4], 73 [21.2], and 77 [21.2], respectively;P < .001), and physical component summary (mean [SD], 41 [11.2], 42 [11.3], and 45 [10.1], respectively;P=.004).
• Regarding health care contacts, there were no differences between the FHL groups.