ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
An objective and subjective health literacy analysis among heart transplant recipients
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Internal Medicine and Hematology, Faculty of Medicine, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
- 2Institute of Behavioural Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Budapest, Hungary
- 3Heart and Vascular Center, Faculty of Medicine, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Budapest, Hungary
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background Health literacy is associated with patient adherence, healthcare utilization, patient self-management, however there is limited data available on how it should be interpreted and measured among heart transplant recipients. Methods In a cross-sectional study among heart transplant recipients (n=98) under follow-up at Semmelweis University Heart and Vascular Centre, HLS-EUQ47 and Newest Vital Sign Test were used to measure objective and subjective HL. Results The HLS-EU Q47, a measure for subjective HL, showed that 49.5% of heart transplant recipients had excellent, 35.1% sufficient, 14.4% problematic and 1% inadequate HL. For objective HL, measured with the NVS Test, the frequency of HL categories (adequate HL 49%, possibility of limited HL 26.5%, high likelihood of limited HL 24.5%) was significantly different. We were not able to identify a significant predictor of subjective HL. However, objective HL showed a significant association with both age and educational attainment. There was no significant association between HL and health risks or health-promoting behaviors (alcohol consumption, physical exercise, smoking). Conclusions The results of our research indicate that subjective and objective (performance-based) HL are two different concepts and should be treated separately. Finding ways to improve HL among heart transplant recipients should be a priority and requires a complex assessment process, a multi-faceted approach both for caregivers and stakeholders.
Keywords: Health Literacy, objective health literacy, Subjective health literacy, Quality of Life, Heart transplant recipients
Received: 29 May 2025; Accepted: 31 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hajnes-Szabó, Czeglédi, Pilling, Sax, Merkely and Assabiny. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lili Diána Hajnes-Szabó, szabo.diana@semmelweis.hu
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.