Health literacy and its influencing factors in Iranian diabetic patients

BACKGROUND Health literacy is the ability to obtain, read, understand and use healthcare information to make appropriate health decisions and follow instructions for treatment. The aim of this study was to identify the effect of various factors on health literacy in patients with diabetes. METHODS 407 patients with diabetes older than 15 years of age were identified from the Diabetes Clinic affiliated to the Institute of Endocrinology and Metabolism (IEM) of Iran University of Medical Sciences. We assessed patients' health literacy using the Persian version of Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA) questionnaire. RESULTS Mean age of the patients was 55.8 ± 11.3 years, and 61.7% the participants were female.. Overall, 18.2% of the patients had adequate health literacy skills, 11.8% had marginal and 70.0% inadequate health literacy skills. Male participants performed better than females (p< 0.01) and older patients had lower health literacy score than younger patients (p< 0.001). Furthermore, patients with higher educational and occupational levels had higher functional health literacy score than those with lower levels (p< 0.001). CONCLUSION Health literacy score in Iranian patients with diabetes seems inadequate. Therefrom effective interventions should be designed and implemented for this group of patients to improve diabetes outcomes.