Relationship of health literacy and adherence to oral anticoagulation therapy in patients with atrial fibrillation: a cross‐sectional study

Oral anticoagulant therapy (OAT) has increased substantially due to the aging population and prevalence rise of atrial fibrillation (AF). Medication adherence is important to achieve effectiveness and safety of OAT. The study aim was to investigate the relationship between health literary (HL) and the adherence to OAT in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). This is a cross-sectional study conducted in a public cardiology clinic in Brazil, 2019. Sociodemographic and clinical data were collected by the review of medical records and interviews with patients. The relation between health literacy (HL) and adherence to OAT was investigated by a multiple logistic regression model. Overall, 100 AF patients were included in this study, with average age of 68.8 ± 13.8 years and predominance of women (54 %). Inadequate HL was found in 79 % of the patients and non-adherence was identified in 66 % of the participants. Sex was the only variable with a statistically significant association with non-adherence to OAT. Men presented a 2.54-fold greater chance of non-adherence to OAT, when compared to the women (Odds ratio (OR) = 2.54; 95 % confidence interval (CI): 1.03–6.62; p = 0.047). No statistically significant relationship was found between inadequate HL and non-adherence to OAT (OR 1.48; 95 % CI, 0.47–4.61; p = 0.49). High rates of inadequate HL and non-adherence to OAT were identified in this study; however, this relationship did not prove to be statistically significant. Further studies are needed to investigate factors associated with non-adherence to OAT in large samples of vulnerable populations and strategies for its improvement in public health.