Journal of Clinical Trials
Open Access
ISSN: 2167-0870
ISSN: 2167-0870
Satish Chandrasekhar Nair, Shamsa Al Ghafli and Halah Ibrahim
Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Clin Trials
Although literacy is defined as the basic ability to read and write, functional health literacy is the ability to read, understand
and act on health information. High prevalence of low health literacy in adult patient’s was linked to limited understanding
of health information, medical advices, insufficient self-management of medical conditions, ignorance of prophylactic services,
increase in hospitalizations and healthcare costs and high mortality rates. With a population of approximately 8 million, non-
UAE nationals constitute approximately 80% of the total population of the country. Although the importance of health literacy
has been extensively studied in the North American and European populations, there is a scarcity of information relating to
health literacy and its adverse health effects in countries like the UAE that have more equitable access to healthcare. A multicenter
random sampling survey method was used to survey patients visiting the hospital as “Out Patients” at several public and
private hospitals and clinics in the seven emirates of the UAE, by several multilingual physician researchers. Patients less than
18 years old (verified using their national emirates identity card), those that did not consent to participate in the study, and inpatients
were excluded from the study. In this study, the results from the National Assessment of Health Literacy in UAE adults
will be discussed. The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence and distribution of health literacy in UAE adults and
determine whether low-literacy was more prevalent among patients with certain types of diseases. The results from our study
will enable to confirm if low health literacy is prevalent in a country where the average literacy rate reported for adult male and
female are above 90% and where state- of-the-art healthcare infrastructure exists. Results indicate a unique pattern in the health
literacy pattern in the UAE. This pattern has led to the identification of a critical factor for the success of clinical trials outcome.