Fear of COVID-19 and Multidimensional Health Literacy Among Patients on Hemodialysis: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study.

INTRODUCTION

This multicenter cross-sectional study evaluated fear of COVID-19 after vaccination and the association between multidimensional health literacy (HL) and fear in patients undergoing hemodialysis.

METHODS

COVID-19 fear scores were compared with those of adults in April 2020 using an unpaired t-test. The association between multidimensional HL and COVID-19 fear scores was estimated using a multivariable-adjusted general linear model.

RESULTS

A total of 446 patients were analyzed, of whom 431 (97%) and 9 (2%) received three and two vaccination doses, respectively. Participants' COVID-19 fear scores were significantly lower than those of the general population at the beginning of the pandemic. Higher functional HL was associated with lower fear, whereas higher critical HL was associated with greater fear. Communicative HL was not associated with fear.

CONCLUSION

Fear of COVID-19 among patients with low-functional HL could be reduced by providing health information in an easy-to-understand manner.