Health literacy levels in diabetes patients with poor glycemic status in communities of Shanghai / 复旦学报（医学版）

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the levels of literacy and numeracy in type 2 diabetes patients with poor glycemic status in communities of Shanghai,China,and to evaluate their associations with blood glucose level.Methods A total of 800 type 2 diabetes patients with recent HbA1c≥7.5％ or fasting plasma glucose level ≥10 mmol/L were recruited from 8 communities in Minhang district and Changning district of Shanghai,China,and were interviewed using a structured questionnaire during February 2015 and March 2016.Literacy and numeracy levels of all patients were evaluated using the validated Health Literacy Management Scale (HeLMS) and the 5-item version Diabetes Numeracy Test (DNT-5),respectively.Results The patients included in this study were observed to have higher levels of health literacy,with a median score of HeLMS being 116 [interquartile range (IQR),108-120] and a median correct rate of DNT-5 of 80％ (IQR,60％-100％).Age,educational level and occupation were significantly related with health literacy levels and numeracy.Sex and income were closely related with health literacy levels.HeLMS score was not significantly associated with HbA1c level (P =0.383),while the lower correct rate of DNT-5 was linked with a higher level of HbA1c.The median HbA1c level was 8.3％ (IQR 7.7％-9.4％) in the patients with the lowest tertile of DNT-5 correct rate,significantly higher than 8.2％ (IQR7.5％-9.2％) in the medium and 8.0％ (IQR7.5 ％-8.8 ％) in the highest tertile group (P =0.009).Conclusions Diabetes patients with poor glycemic status in communities of Shanghai have high levels of health literacy,which was significantly related with age,sex,educational level,occupation and income.Ability in numeracy may be a more important influence factor than health literacy for glycemic status of diabetes patients.