Health literacy in type 2 diabetic women in Qom province in 2019

Diabetes is a multifactorial disorder and the most common endocrine disorder. One of the important factors in the control and treatment of diabetes is the health literacy of the person with diabetes. Health literacy is defined as the extent to which one is able to acquire, interpret, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate decisions. This study was conducted to determine the health literacy of women with type 2 diabetes in Qom.

This study was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study of 300 diabetic women in Qom in 2019. Cluster sampling was performed randomly.  Adult Functional Health Literacy Questionnaire was used to collect data. The overall health literacy score was calculated from 100. Data were performed using SPSS20 software, descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and analytical statistics (Anova test, independent t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient).

The study's findings show that the mean age and standard deviation of participants in the study was 44.4 ± 4.85 years. Computational health literacy was 51 percent of inadequate and borderline, 55 percent in reading comprehension, and overall health literacy was 53 percent of inadequate and borderline. There was a positive and significant relationship between health literacy, marital status, education and occupation, and a negative significant relationship between age and health literacy (r = -0.29, p = 0.00).

According to the findings, single, less educated, housewives and older people have lower health literacy. Consequently, these have been taken into account in the planning and measures taken to promote health literacy.