Relationship between Health Literacy and Self-Care Behaviors in Diabetic Patients Type II Referred to the Center of Diabetes Control and Prevention in Zabol

A large part of the control and treatment of diabetes is performed by the participation of diabetic patient through self-care. Health literacy indicates the patient's health care; therefore, the present study was aimed to determine the level of health literacy and self-care level of type II diabetic patients referred to diabetes center of Zabol city.
This was a descriptive-analytic study that performed on 150 diabetic patient’s type II referred to Diabetes Control Center in Zabol in 2016 who had the inclusion criteria for the study. Samples were selected by using randomized sampling method. Data were collected through a questionnaire containing three parts of demographic information, health literacy, and self-care level in diabetes. Data were analyzed by SPSS 19 software and statistical tests (e.g.: T-test, Chi-Square, ANOVA, and Pearson's correlationcoefficient).
The results of this study showed that 71.3% of the participants had inadequate and cross-border health literacy and 28.7% of them had adequate health literacy. The findings also have showed that significant relationship between the level of health literacy with gender, age, and occupation. Alsofinding showed that 43% inadequate self-careº 35% border self-care and 22% adequate self-care level. Pearson's correlation coefficient showed that adequate health literacy in people’s old age more than others. Also by increasing age in diabetic patients was higher health literacy rate and have been adequate self-care level.
The findings of this study showed that patients with type II diabetes had inadequate health literacy and this would cost a lot to the patients with diabetes each year. Hence, the production of media and educational materials in the local dialect of each region that have simple and comprehensible for all age groups and people with inadequate health literacy can be an effective step for improving health literacy at the individual and social levels