Patients’ Health Literacy for Radiological Procedures and Examinations

Abstract

Background

Health literacy is crucial in healthcare as it influences an individual's ability to make well-informed health decisions, resulting in better health management and outcomes. Limited health literacy has been linked to poor health outcomes, such as increased mortality risk, morbidity, and complications. This presentation will provide an overview of an integrative review that investigated patients’ knowledge and understanding of a scheduled radiological procedure and the barriers that inhibit good health literacy in radiology patients.

Methods

A systematic search was conducted using the electronic databases: Medline, EMBASE, and CINAHL. The keywords used were “health literacy”, “patient knowledge”, “before”, “radiolog*”, and “exam*”. The review included literature that investigated patient knowledge regarding radiological examinations such as general radiography, computed tomography, mammography, and interventional or fluoroscopy, written in English and published between January 2013 and May 2023.

Results

A total of 1,728 studies were initially identified from Medline, EMBASE, and CINAHL. Fifty-one of which met the criteria for this review and were eligible. Four key themes regarding patient knowledge before their appointment were distinguished: 1) Patient preparation awareness; 2) General knowledge and information received; 3) Radiation exposure estimation; 4) Risk perception.

Conclusions

There is a significant gap in patients' knowledge about their scheduled radiological appointments in general. Certain barriers exist which hinder patients from effectively acquiring satisfactory knowledge. This included their passive approach to health decisions and low education level. Patients heavily rely on healthcare professionals, especially their referring physician, to provide them with the necessary information.