Examination of the relationship between health literacy and the level of adaptation to disease in individuals with chronic diseases

Today, curable and preventable chronic diseases are quite common. The concept of health literacy, which has been understood recently, has an important place in primary health care services. In this study, we aimed to determine the health literacy levels of patients who applied to Ertuğrul Family Health Education Center No. 36, and to investigate the relationship between their health literacy levels and compliance to chronic diseases. Our study was planned and implemented as a single-center, cross-sectional survey study. 328 individuals aged 18 and above with chronic diseases who applied to Ertuğrul Family Health Education Center No. 36 between August 2020 and January 2021 were included. A 62-item questionnaire including sociodemographic questions, Chronic Disease Adjustment Scale and Turkey Health Literacy Scale-32 (TSOY-32) was given to the participants. 54.3% of the participants were women out of whom 64.3% were married, the average age was 46.56 while the median age was 48. The average health literacy general index score of the study group was found to be 33.42±8.76, and the average general index score of compliance to chronic diseases was 80.75±12.62. In our study, a significant positive correlation was found between the level of health literacy and compliance to chronic diseases. Awareness and intervention by health service providers regarding patients' health literacy leves is an important factor as far as adherence to treatment and increasing the quality of the health service is concerned. Keywords: Chronic disease, health literacy, Turkey Health Literacy Scale-32