Functional health literacy in hypertensive elders at primary health care

to assess the relationship between inadequate functional health literacy and inadequate blood pressure control in older people with hypertension in Primary Health Care.

a cross-sectional study with sample calculated at 392. SAHLPA-18 tool was used for functional health literacy; blood pressure was measured; sociodemographic and clinical data were collected. Hierarchical logistic regression was used.

(high) inadequate blood pressure and (low) functional inadequate health literacy were present in 41.6% and 54.6% of the people, respectively. Factors associated with inadequate blood pressure were: inadequate functional health literacy, black-brown skin color, overweight-obesity, hypertension diagnosis time, non-adherence to exercise/diet, drug treatment. Schooling had no association with inadequate blood pressure.

hypertensive elderly people with inadequate health literacy were more likely to have inadequate blood pressure. Thus, health professionals need to value functional health literacy as a possible component to control blood pressure.