P967 - THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HEALTH LITERACY AND GLUCOSE PROFILE IN INDIVIDUALS WITH TYPE II DIABETES

P967

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HEALTH LITERACY AND GLUCOSE PROFILE IN INDIVIDUALS WITH TYPE II DIABETES

N. Inanc^1,*, A. G. Abban²

¹Nutrition and Dietetics, Nuh Naci Yazgan University, Kayseri, ²Nutrition and Dietetics, Mugla Sıtkı Koçman University , Muğla, Türkiye

Rationale:  Considering that the factors affecting health literacy may vary by country and region, as well as the differences in study results, this research was planned and conducted to reveal the relationship between health literacy levels and glycemic control status in patients with T2DM.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the sociodemographic characteristics and anthropometric measurements of 90 randomly selected patients diagnosed with T2DM for at least one year were examined, along with their fasting blood glucose (FBG) and Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels. Using a diabetes-specific Health Literacy Scale, patients were grouped as having poor, moderate, good, or very good health literacy based on their scores.

Results:  Patients with moderate health literacy had higher FBG levels than those with good or very good literacy, and higher HbA1c levels than those with poor, good, or very good literacy. There was a significant negative correlation between FBG levels and both functional health literacy (r = -0.220, p = 0.037) and communicative health literacy scores (r = -0.222, p = 0.036). As serum HbA1c (%) levels increased, functional health literacy scores significantly decreased (r = -0.308, p = 0.003). In Model 0, where no adjustments were made for confounding factors such as age, gender, and educational status, functional literacy scores were associated with a 0.220 unit decrease in FBG and a 0.302 unit decrease in HbA1c. In Model 1, which adjusted for potential confounders, functional literacy was associated with a 0.247 unit decrease in FBG and a 0.346 unit decrease in HbA1c (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: The study found that health literacy plays a role in glycemic control in patients with T2DM. Therefore, it may be beneficial to monitor the health literacy of individuals with diabetes as part of public health services.

Disclosure of Interest: None declared