Survey of Health Literacy in Association with Quality of Life in Subjects with Diabetes Mellitus, Tabriz 2018 - 2019

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of non-communicable and chronic diseases is a serious threat, especially in developing countries. Diabetes is the most common metabolic disease of endocrine diseases and is one of the most common non-communicable diseases in developing countries and in the world and is currently the fastest growing in the world. Over the past two decades, studies have shown that the main purpose is not only to relieve the physical symptoms of the disease but also to improve the patients’ overall quality of life. Due to the lack of a similar study to survey the level of health literacy in type 2 diabetic patients in Tabriz city, this study was designed for this purpose. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study that aimed to determine the health literacy and its relationship with quality of life in 105 patients with type 2 diabetes in Tabriz. Sampling was done by available method from clinics and governmental endocrinology outpatient centers. Questionnaires were completed by interview. After completing the informed consent form and demographic information questionnaire, Diabetes Quality of Life Brief Clinical Inventory (DQoL-BCI) questionnaire was used to evaluate the Iranian Urban Population Health Literacy Questionnaire (18 to 65 years) and the 15-item Diabetes Quality of Life Questionnaire (DQoL-BCI) was used. The relationship between the level of health literacy with the quality of life in the study population was analyzed using appropriate statistical methods. Results: The mean age of the study patients was 58.33±10.26 years. The prevalence of inadequate health literacy was 52.5%, partly adequate was 14.3%, borderline was 20% and sufficient was 13.3%. Quality of life was significantly and negatively correlated with dimensions of reading, access, comprehension, evaluation and decision making, as well as overall health.