Status of Health Literacy and associated factors among Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Nepal

Abstract

Background: Diabetes is an iceberg disease and a major public health issue in Nepal. The prevalence and incidence of type 2 diabetes have occurred globally, especially affecting societies in economic transition, mostly newly industrialized and developing countries. Health literacy has become crucial to develop skills and knowledge of a person to access, understand and use the information and understand health determinants to make health and health care decisions and implement healthy behaviors.Objectives: The study aimed to assess health literacy level and associated factors among type 2 diabetes patients.Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2019 to January 2020. Health literacy level was measured using the European health survey questionnaire. This study used the SPSS version 16 on the received data sets to perform statistical analysis. Univariate logistic regression and multivariate logistic regression models were carried out to identify the independent factors related to health literacy.Results: The study showed that majority (86.3 %) of the diabetes patients had adequate health literacy. Gender, marital status, educational status, occupational status, and hospitalization were found statistically significant with health literacy. Marital Status (AOR = 0.18, 95% CI: 0.04-0.71, p = 0.001), educational status (AOR = 7.06, 95% CI: 2.13-23.36, p = 0.001), hospitalization (AOR = 8.38, 95% CI: 1.85-37.92, p = 0.001) and treatment compliance (AOR = 4.28, 95% CI: 1.57-11.63, p = 0.001) were found to be predictors for the health literacy.Conclusion: The study findings indicated more than a fourth-fifth of the respondents had adequate health literacy. Health Literacy plays a vital role in the prevention and management of the disease, so, the government should emphasize on uplift the education level and provide health counseling during diagnosis and treatment.