Correlation between Health Literacy and Self–Care Behavior among Type 2 Diabetes At Nonsung Subdistrict, Mueang District, Udon Thani Province

Abstract

           The purpose of this descriptive research was to study the correlation between health literacy and self–care behavior in patients with type 2 diabetes in Nonsung subdistrict, Mueang district, Udon Thani province. One hundred and forty–eight participants were enrolled by purposive sampling according to the inclusion criteria. The study was operated from November, 2020 to February, 2021. The instruments included health literacy questionnaire and self–care behavior questionnaire. The reliability of the instruments tested by the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.82 and 0.78, respectively. The data were analyzed for mean, standard deviation and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. A p value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

            The findings showed that the samples had the health literacy in all aspects at the moderate level (X ̅ = 2.53, S.D. = 0.63). Of these, the health literacy in knowledge and understanding (X ̅ = 3.30, S.D. = 0.72) and decision making skill (X ̅ = 3.03, S.D. = 0.57) were classified on the high level. The health literacy in access to health information and services ( = 2.07, S.D. = 0.56), communication skill (X ̅ = 2.50, S.D. = 0.62) and media–literacy (X ̅ = 2.33, S.D. = 0.67) were arranged in the moderate level whereas the self–management aspect (X ̅ = 1.94, S.D. = 0.61) was in the low level.

             The samples had the self–care behavior in all aspects at the low level (X ̅ = 1.98, S.D. = 0.79). Of these, the self–care behavior in food consumption
(X ̅ = 2.56, S.D. = 0.82) and complication prevention (X ̅ = 2.48, S.D. = 0.93) were assigned in the moderate level whereas the self–care behavior in exercise
(X ̅ = 1.30, S.D. = 0.70) and medication management (X ̅ = 1.60, S.D. = 0.72) were classified in the low level. Four components of health literacy were positively correlated to self–care behavior with statistically significant level of 0.05; knowledge and understanding (r = 0.296, p = 0.039), access to health information and services (r = 0.434, p = 0.016), communication skill (r = 0.305, p = 0.023) and media–literacy (r = 0.227, p = 0.046).

           Keywords: Health literacy, Self–care behavior, Patients with type 2 diabetes