Health Literacy, Knowledge and Relevant Factors in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Presenting to a Diabetes Clinic in Zahedan in 2014

Objectives: Health literacy is a major factor contributing to theeffective control and prevention of diabetes. Diabetes patientswith low health literacy have a lower adherence to self-careactivities and blood sugar control. The present study wasconducted to assess health literacy, knowledge and relevantfactors in patients with type 2 diabetes presenting to a diabetesclinic in Zahedan, Iran, in 2014.Methods: The present descriptive, analytical, cross-sectionalstudy was conducted on 182 patients with type 2 diabetes selectedthrough convenience sampling in 2014. A valid and reliablehealth literacy and knowledge inventory was used. Data wereanalyzed in SPSS-16 using descriptive statistics and the linearregression analysis.Results: The majority of the participating patients were woman(75.8%), illiterate (38.5%) and married (85.2%). A total of 31.3%of the patients had an adequate health literacy, 61.5% had amarginal and 7.1% an inadequate health literacy, while 58% had ahigh level of knowledge. A statistically significant relationshipwas observed between health literacy and the level of education(P<0.001) and gender (p<0.049); that is, men had a higher healthliteracy than women. No statistically significant relationshipswere observed between health literacy and the other demographicvariables assessed (P> 0.05).Conclusion: The study revealed the majority of patients with type2 diabetes to have marginal health literacy, while health literacywas lower in women than in men. Simple training programs arerecommended to be designed for improving health literacy,especially among women and people with lower levels ofeducation.

کلیدواژه ها:

Health literacy ، Knowledge ، Type 2 diabetes