Enhancing Cardiac Health Outcomes through Knowledge and Health Information Literacy Evidence from a Pilot Study

Purpose The study aims at investigating the improvement of health outcomes through patient knowledge, activation, and health information literacy guided by the framework of health literacy skills (HLS) and (integrated theory of health behaviour change) ITHBC model Method A cross-sectional survey was carried out adapted structured questionnaire to collect data from 140 cardiac patients at Mayo Hospital, Lahore Pakistan. The sample was taken from the targeted population, including pilot testing, using a purposeful sampling method. The smart PLS used for PLS-SEM Structural Equation Modelling. Results The study reveals that the majority of patients, have family support (111.79%) when needed, colleagues (22.16%), and relatives (21.15%) when things go wrong. Family support is the most common, followed by colleagues (20%) and relatives (16%). The majority of cardiac patients have family and relatives accompanying them during doctor visits. This research reveals notable connections and mediating effects between Health Information Literacy (HIL), Patient Activation (PA), Prior Knowledge (PK), and Health-Related Behavior Outcomes (HRBO). Results show that HIL has a highly positive impact on both PA (path coefficient = 0.249, p = 0.002) and PK (path coefficient = 0.296, p = 0.000). PA has a positive effect on HRBO (path coefficient = 0.366, p = 0.000), and PK has a strong influence on HRBO (path coefficient = 0.438, p = 0.000). PK has also a significant effect on PA (path coefficient = 0.397, p = 0.000). Conclusion The findings of this study showed that HIL, PA and PK have a significant effect on HRBO. PA and PK both have positive effects on HRBO, and HIL has positive effects on PA and PK. In addition, PA mediates the effects of HIL on HRBO, whereas PK plays mediating roles in linking either HIL and HRBO or HIL and PA.