Designing a health literacy model for patients with diabetes

Low health literacy levels among individuals with type 2 diabetes are common and may be a fundamental barrier to increasing self-efficacy and self-care in patients. Therefore, the present study aimed to propose a model for educating health literacy in diabetic patients in hospitals affiliated with the Islamic Azad University of Medical Sciences, Tehran.

This research was applied in terms of purpose, mixed-methods (qualitative-quantitative) in terms of data type, qualitative content analysis, and cross-sectional survey in the quantitative aspect (fitness of model). The statistical population in the qualitative section included 18 participants from experts in the field of health care. In the quantitative section, 220 educators working in hospitals affiliated with the Islamic Azad University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, were selected using stratified random sampling. Data collection tools included interviews in the qualitative section and research-made questionnaire in the quantitative section. For data analysis, coding was used in the qualitative section, and structural equation modeling was used in the quantitative section.

For this model, 6 dimensions, 17 components, and 78 items were identified. The results showed that the basic literacy dimension had a coefficient of 0.729, the specialized literacy dimension had a coefficient of 0.712, diabetes management had a coefficient of 0.654, social literacy dimension had a coefficient of 0.630, cultural literacy dimension had a coefficient of 0.605, and media literacy had a coefficient of 0.535, respectively, contributing the most to the health literacy of diabetic patients.

Since the "Health Literacy Education" model has a good fitness, it is recommended that this model will be applied in different settings such as hospitals in order to improving the health level of patients.