The effect of health literacy of individuals with type 2 diabetes on cardiovascular disease risk awareness and glycemic control

This study was conducted in order to examine the relationship between the health literacy level of individuals with type 2 diabetes, awareness of cardiovascular disease risk and glycemic control. This study was conducted with 230 type 2 diabetes patients admitted to the internal medicine outpatient clinic and mainly diabetes outpatient clinic at Sincan Dr. Nafiz Körez Hospital. In the collection of the research data İntroductory Information Form containing questions about sociodemographic and medical characteristics of individuals, Diabetes Health Literacy Scale and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Awareness Assessment Scale were used. In the study, the normal distribution of numerical data was evaluated with kurtosis skewness measures. Pearson correlation test was used for the relationships between numerical variables, simple and multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine the effect of health literacy Deciency. The average total health literacy score of the participants was 43,17±8,83. The functional health literacy score is 8,73±3,66. Critical health literacy was found to be 9,70±2,33. The average total score of the individuals participating in the study from the Cardiovascular Disease Risk Awareness Scale is 40,68±5,29. As a result of the study, it was found that glycemic control increases as the level of health literacy increases. It was concluded that there is a negative correlation between the total health literacy score, blood glucose level and HbA1c level. As the level of health literacy increased, cardiovascular risk awareness increased. By increasing the health literacy levels of individuals with diabetes, glycemic control can be achieved and cardiovascular complications can be reduced. For this reason, trainings should be conducted to increase the level of health literacy.