| خلاصه مقاله | Introduction: Patient safety is defined by WHO as the prevention of errors and side effects for patients
related to health care and not harming patients. Factors such as errors in diagnosis and communication
disorders, etc. can endanger the safety of patients. Of course, health literacy can positively affect and
improve the level of safety and health care. Health literacy is the degree to which people have the
ability to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make
appropriate health decisions. Studies show that people with limited health literacy are less likely to
undergo health screening and follow doctor's orders less. Patients who recognize that accurate
information is an important aspect of patient safety can actively participate in the care decision-making
process.
Methods: Google Scholar, PubMed, Medline, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Science Direct, Web of Science
databases were reviewed using the keywords “patient safety” and “health literacy “ . All papers were
examined according to the purpose of the study. The search for articles was conducted during the
period 2019-2023. Of the 22 studies examined and selected, 6 were evaluated and analyzed using the
inclusion and exclusion criteria for data extraction.
Results: The results of the review of these articles showed that safety errors occur when staff provide
unclear information regarding home care or after the visit. According to the results, the level of health
literacy is higher in people under 50 years old, men, people with medium to high education and people
with medium to high income. These studies show that the level of basic performance literacy, health
knowledge and interactive literacy among people is significantly higher than advanced health
knowledge, communication literacy and critical literacy .
Conclusion: Most of the events that threaten the safety of patients are the lack of patient education.
Therefore, the development of patient education is essential. From these studies, it can be concluded
that the lack of practices focused on health literacy has a negative impact on patient safety. Health
literacy is influenced by age, gender, income and education. |