Health Literacy and its Relationship with the medical, dietary Adherence and exercise in Patients with Type II Diabetes mellitus

Medical, dietary adherence and exercise plays a key role in the control of diabetes, and health literacy is a decisive factor in patient's adherence. The aim of this study was to determine the health literacy and its relation with medical, dietary Adherence and exercise in Patients with Type II Diabetes mellitus.

This analytical- descriptive study was conducted on 241 patients with type II diabetes referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital of Ardabil city in 2017 who were selected by simple sampling method. Tools for data collection was demographic Test of functional health literacy of adults (TOFHLA), Morisky 8-Item Medication Adherence (MMAS-8) and dietary Adherence and exercise, questionnaires. For data analysis, descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation and frequency distribution) and analytical statistics (one-way variance, independent t test and Pearson correlation) by SPSS were used.

The mean(SD) age of patients was 55.17 (10.15). The overall score of health literacy, medical adherence and adherence to diet and exercise were 52.51 (17.60), 2.96 (1.89) and 57.15 (14.35), respectively. 128 patients (53.1%) had inadequate health literacy. Health literacy was significantly correlated with medical, dietary Adherence and exercise(p< 0.05).

Health literacy is effective on medical, dietary Adherence and exercise of patients. Therefore, it seems to be essential to pay attention to education and promotion of health literacy by Mass media and healthcare custodians.