Dementia Care Partner Health Literacy as a Mediator Between Education and Burden at Hospital Discharge

Care partners of hospitalized persons with dementia often experience significant burden at discharge. This study examined whether dementia care partner health literacy mediates the relationship between education and burden at hospital discharge. Data from 277 care partners in the Family-centered Function-focused Care (Fam-FFC) trial were analyzed using mediation analysis to assess indirect effects of education on burden (Short-Form Zarit Burden Interview [ZBI-12]) through health literacy (Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine-Short Form [REALM-SF]). Analyses were conducted using SPSS and AMOS. For medium education (B = -0.012; 95% CI = -0.019, -0.003), the indirect effect accounted for 18.5% of the total effect, while for high education (B = -0.018; 95% CI = -0.026, -0.006), it accounted for 21.4%, indicating partial mediation. Findings underscore the role of health literacy in reducing care partner burden and highlight the need to address education and literacy disparities to provide effective support at hospital discharge.