Using the Pregnancy Perception of Risk Questionnaire to Assess Health Care Literacy Gaps in Maternal Perception of Prenatal Risk

In order to make appropriate decisions, patients must be able to understand and use the context-specific health information with which they have been provided, and health providers must be able to convey information to patients who possess varying degrees of health literacy. Adherence to medical recommendations often depends on patient perception of their medical risks and the importance they attach to those risks. In obstetrics, maternity patients are generally identified as high risk or non-high risk (routine). Conferring the designation of "high risk" may confer additional benefits in educational efforts, literacy evaluation, and relief of educational barriers to care that are reflected in high-risk patients' higher assessments of their risks. In this study, medically identified risk factors were reviewed for patients in the high-risk and routine obstetrical clinics. Patients labeled as "routine" might still possess significant numbers and types of medically identified risk factors (MIFs) due to patients' socioeconomic status and health risks. If prenatal risk is a spectrum, adaptation of obstetrical health care materials and culturally appropriate counseling may mitigate gaps between patient understanding of their MIF number and type and patient risk perception in order to reach the goal of universally improved patient adherence to medical recommendations.