Background: Health literacy has become the best predictor of healthcare status. However, two-thirds of health providers are unaware of patients’ health literacy. Thus, the aim of the study is to investigate factors related to Chinese-speaking nurses’ knowledge and experience of health literacy. Methods: This cross-sectional study used a web-based survey. A total of 430 nurses were recruited by stratified sampling from different levels of hospitals and community health centers in Taiwan. Primary outcome measure by Health Literacy Knowledge and Experience. Results: The participants’ overall health literacy knowledge was limited; the correct responses were 51%. The education level of the participants, job category, working years, and having attended in-service patient education programs were the predictors of knowledge of health literacy (p < 0.05); Institute, job category, and having attended in-service patient education programs were the predictors of experience of health literacy (p < 0.01). Conclusions: Participants’ education levels and In-service patient education programs are beneficial factors to improve nurses’ knowledge of health literacy. Furthermore, nursing education should emphasize on how to identify individuals’ health literacy and using readable healthcare materials to improve health education.
Purpose: This retrospective cohort study was conducted to determine the glaucoma risk associated with metabolic disease (MetD) using insurance claims data of Taiwan. Methods: From the database, we identified patients with newly diagnosed hypertension, diabetes and/or hyperlipidemia from the years 2000 to 2002 as the MetD cohort (N = 42,036) and an age-gender-diagnosis-date matched control cohort without MetD with a two-fold sample size than that of the MetD cohort. Both cohorts were followed until the development of glaucoma, death, or withdrawal, until 31 December 2013. The incidence of glaucoma, and the Cox method estimated hazard ratio (HR) of glaucoma were calculated. Results showed that the incidence of glaucoma was two-fold higher in the MetD cohort than in the controls (1.99 versus 0.99 per 1000 person-years), with an adjusted HR of 1.66 (95% CI: 1.50–1.85). The glaucoma incidence was higher in patients with diabetes than those with hypertension and hyperlipidemia (2.38 versus 1.95 and 1.72 per 1000 person-years, respectively). The incidence increased to 5.67 per 1000 person-years in patients with all three comorbidities, with an aHR of 4.95 (95% CI: 2.35–10.40). We also found higher incidence rates of primary open-angle glaucoma and primary angle-closure glaucoma with aHRs of 2.03 and 1.44, respectively. It was concluded that glaucoma risk increased with the number of MetD. Health providers need to monitor patients with MetD to prevent glaucoma.