Examination of the relationship between health literacy, concern and anxiety in adults with diabetes mellitus or hypertension and comparison with individuals without chronic disease

ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to establish literacy level of patients who have diabetes mellitus (DM) or hypertension (HT); to search the relation with anxiety and worry and to investigate comparison of this group with.healty individuals .Study group is built up with 300 volunteers ( 171 women and 129 men) from the patients who visited Van Yüzüncü Yıl University Dursun Odabaş Health Center Familiy Medicine Clinic. This study is across sectional descriptive survey study.To collect the information about sociodemographic characteristics, worry and anxiety level and health literacy status, Sociodemographic Information Form (SDIF), Worry and Anxiety Scale (WAS) and Adult Health Literacy Scale(AHLS) are used. Statistical analysis of the data are made with One Way Variance Analysis, Chi-Square test and Pearson Correlation Analysis. The age of individuals included in study are changed between 18 and 87 years with a mean age of 49.24±16.74 years. The age of individuals with chronic disease are changed between 26-87 years with a mean age of 59.18±9.41 years. The age healthy individuals age are changed between 18-51 years with a mean age of 59.18±9.41 years WAS scores of the individulas included in study are changed between 0-77 with a mean score of 41.72±16.38. The score of the individuals with chronic disease are changed between 4-74 with a mean score of 45.48±13.92. No statistically significant difference is observed between DM and HT groups (p>0.05) according to WAS scores. WAS score of healthy individuals are changed between 0-77 with a mean score of 34.19±18.30. There is a statistically significant difference between healthy individulas and individuals with chronic disease (p<0.05), with a higher score of individuals with chronic disease. When compared the DM and HT groups individually the healthy individuals has a lower WAS score with a statistically significant difference (p<0.05). WAS scores found to be higher with female gender, lower educational status, being unemployed, having a chronic disease and not having regular check-ups (at least every 6 month) with a statistically significant difference (p˂0.05). No statistically significant difference of WAS scores is observed between the groups according to marital status (p>0.05). AHLS scores of the individulas included in study are changed between 0-20 with a mean score of 9.24±5.47. The score of the individuals with chronic disease are changed between 0-20 with a mean score of 6.40±4.05. No statistically significant difference is observed between DM and HT groups (p>0.05) according to AHLS scores. AHLS scores of healthy individuals are changed between 7-20 with a mean score of 14.92±2.91. There is a statistically significant difference between healthy individulas and individuals with chronic disease (p<0.05), with a higher score of healthy individuals with chronic disease. When compared the DM and HT groups individually the healthy individuals has higher AHLS scores with a statistically significant difference ( p<0.05). HLS scores found to be lower with female gender, being married, lower educational status, being unemployed, having a chronic disease, not having regular check-ups (at least every 6 month) and not using regular medication with a statistically significant difference (p˂0.05). No statistically significant difference of HLS scores are observed between the groups according to socioeconomic status, having DM or HT diseases and not having proper treatment (p>0.05). There is a statistically significant negative correlation between mean HLS scores and WAS scores (r=-0.434, p=0.000). Individuals who have higher HLS scores have lower WAS scores. Children are the individulas who will build and form the future of society. It is clearly known that parents own literacy level has an active role on the advancing of the literacy level for a child. For this purpose, the most significant duty and responsibility should be taken by the family practitioner at this point. It is expected a that a family practitioner become aware of all family members literacy level by their interviews and tests. When an insufficient literacy level of family and child is detected after these interviews and tests, they should bring up a sufficient level of their health literacy scale. Additionally, it can be recommended generalising the projects which focus on the society, preparing consciousness raising presentations and opening remarkable stands at the entrance of shopping malls, city centers and near the hospitals for the purpose of enhancing health literacy level in a society. At the hospitals, especially at the clinics where the chronic patients are monitored , distribution of simple prepared HLS booklets; generalising short, clear and simple information included public service broadcasts leaded by ministry of health can be helpful to build up proper scales to determine exact HLS for our country's cultural structure. Organising seminars, conferences and similar scientific activities on the topic at the universities and schools for students would be beneficial in terms of HLS awareness. Despite increasing the amount of the studies and works on HLS recent years, it can be suggested that contemporary studies should be done due to inadequate level of studies.