The Impact of Health Literacy in Adherence to Medications in a population with Acute Lumbar Pain: a Cross-Sectional Study

• Autor(a) principal: Ana Luísa Dias Amorim
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://hdl.handle.net/10216/141943
• topic: Medicina clínica; Clinical medicine

Acute lumbar pain is a common symptom. Generally, it has a good prognosis but presents great impact on quality of life, thus the importance of therapeutic guidance. Health literacy allows individuals to manage their health and make the best choices, leading to better adherence to medication plans. We aim to evaluate the impact of health literacy in the adherence to medications in people with acute lumbar pain. We conducted a cross-sectional study based on an online self-report questionnaire to characterize the pain, adherence to medications, health literacy, and other factors that could influence it. A total of 249 participants with acute lumbar pain were included (68% females, mean age of 41 years). The utilization of pain relief medication was referred by 41% of participants (50% by medical prescription), with good adherence in 84%. Taking pain relief medication was not associated with literacy, but with the impact of pain (p=0.020). In acute lumbar pain, adherence appears to be more dependent of the perceived impact in everyday life than the level of literacy.