Investigating health literacy in patients with type2 diabets referring to the health houses of Chenaran in 2016

Background& objectives¡:Health literacy is the ability of patients to read, understand, and act based on medical instructions. Diabetes mellitus type 2 is one of the most serious non-communicable diseases across the world.Therefore, the purpose of this study wasassessment of health literacy in patients with type2 diabetes referring to the health houses of Chenaran.
In this cross-sectional (descriptive-correlative)study health literacy of 162 patients with type2 diabetes who were referred to the health houses of Chenaran were measured by questionnaire test of adultfunctional health literacy(TOFHLA). Data were analyzed using Chi-square, t-student, and one-way ANOVA in the SPSS18.
The mean age was 52.7±11.8 years.The mean health literacy score was 43/6±24/03. %68.5 of the cases had inadequate health literacy and %13 had adequate health literacy.There was a significant correlationbetween the health literacy level and income(p=0.033).There wasntany significant relationship between the health literacy and sex(p=0.349), educational level (p=0.417), and age (p=0.451).
This study indicated a low health literacy in patients with type 2 diabetes. Since low health literacy impedes perception of health information and medical instructions, therefore adopting effective strategies to promote this type of literacy seems to be necessary.