Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand the health information needed to make appropriate health decisions. The health behaviors of African American adults with inadequate health literacy skills affect their health outcomes. This study examined the association of health literacy and adherence behaviors in African American older adults (N = 121) with hypertension using a descriptive correlational design. Health literacy was measured using the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine survey, and adherence was measured using the Hill-Bone Compliance Scale. Most of the participants were functioning with inadequate health literacy. No statistically significant association was found between health literacy and adherence, but regression analysis showed that age and health status significantly predicted adherence: Those who were younger and reported poor or fair health status were less likely to adhere to treatment.
Low health literacy is so widespread among patients in outpatient settings, some authors have called it a silent epidemic.[1] Research continues to show that many patients don't understand the recommendations given to them by their healthcare providers.[2,3] Because of this lack of understanding, these patients can't follow directions to adopt healthful lifestyle behaviors, make wise healthcare decisions, actively participate in their plan of care, manage medication regimens, and follow their healthcare providers' treatment advice.
Mastery education has proven to be a useful strategy for improving student learning outcomes. However, few articles have described the use of mastery learning in nursing education programs. This article describes the implementation of mastery education in a nursing program and demonstrates how this approach was used to successfully increase National Council Licensure Examination ® scores among diverse students. [J Nurs Educ. 2013;52(4):234-237.] M astery learning, also known as outcomes-based and competency-based education, has been successfully used in various disciplines to ensure student success. In general, the method promotes student success on the basis of preset criteria. These criteria are not based solely on students' academic ability but allow for fl exibility in instruction and content. Mastery learning can thus be an integral component of a nursing program that admits diverse students. Mastery learning can enhance the academic performance of diverse students despite differences such as geographic location or ethnic and racial group. Because of its various components, mastery learning can be adapted for use in many disciplines. However, there is limited documentation on the use of this method to assure student achievement in nursing.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.