ABSTRACT NUMBER: ESOC2026A2167 ORGANIZATIONAL HEALTH LITERACY IN STROKE-UNIT CARE: INSIGHTS FROM THE PATIENT PERSPECTIVE

Abstract Background and aims Health literacy (HL) contributes to successful implementation of secondary preventive measures in patients with acute cerebrovascular disease. Organizational HL describes the responsibility of health care providers to create conditions that support patients’ health-literate decision-making. We examined the degree of health literacy-sensitive communication during stroke-unit treatment from the patients’ perspective, an important dimension of organizational HL, in order to evaluate needs to further develop stroke-units to health-literate health care providers. Methods A cross-sectional study was performed in 201 patients with acute ischemic stroke or TIA, treated in a university-hospital stroke-unit from August 2024-October 2025. Health literacy-sensitive communication was assessed by the previously published HL-COM questionnaire, assessing comprehension-oriented communication, accessibility, and support in health information and health-related processes. Results Data from 145 patients (response rate: 72.1%, median age: 69 years, 37.9% female) were analyzed. The mean HL-COM-score was 3.07 (SD=0.65, range of scoring instrument: 1–4 with higher scores representing better perceptions of health literacy-sensitive communication). The highest scores were observed for items assessing the perceived importance of understanding disease- and treatment-related information, followed by clear and slow physician communication. Unmet needs were most often expressed in items regarding provision and explanation of written information. No significant associations were found between HL-COM-scores and patients’ age or sex, educational level, migration background, TIA versus stroke diagnosis, stroke severity or length of stroke-unit treatment. Conclusions While overall perception of health literacy-sensitive communication during stroke-unit treatment was satisfactory, additional written information material and verbal explanation of information provided in writing could help improve patient enablement. Conflict of interest Laura Gläser: Nothing to disclose. Konstantin Laurent: Nothing to disclose. Emma Reimann: Nothing to disclose. Arda Civelek: Nothing to disclose. Klaus Gröschel: Nothing to disclose. Timo Uphaus: Nothing to disclose. Marianne Hahn: This work was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – Project-ID 533621552.