The Relationship between Health Literacy of Elderly Diabetics and Adherence to Treatment, Babol, Iran, 2021

Non-adherence to treatment in elderly diabetics is associated with several problems. Existing studies have been less addressed the dimensions of treatment adherence in this population. This study examines the relationship between health literacy of elderly diabetics and adherence to treatment.

This descriptive-analytical study was conducted among 375 randomly selected elderly members of Babol Diabetes Association. Data collection instruments included demographic sheet, abbreviated mental test score, and questionnaires for health literacy of Iranian adults and treatment adherence. The data were analyzed by Chi-square, Pearson correlation coefficient, and regression test using version 22 of SPSS software.

A significant correlation was found between health literacy and gender (P = 0.003). The level of health literacy was higher among the highly educated male elderly (P <0.001) as well as among employees and retirees (P = 0.003). The people over the age of 70 had lower health literacy (P = 0.004). There was no significant relationship between health literacy and marital status (P = 0.14) as well as health literacy and duration of illness (P = 0.19). The treatment adherence was above-average in 99.2% of the elderly. There was a significant relationship between health literacy and adherence to treatment (P <0.001, r = 0.21). The regression analysis also showed that the rate of adherence to treatment increased with improvement in health literacy.(P <0.001, β=0.08).

This study shows that health literacy of the elderly is closely related to treatment adherence. Researchers believe that disease management would be better by improving health literacy in elderly diabetics.