Health Literacy and Self-Care Among Patients Living With Chronic Kidney Disease in a Low-Resource Setting

The aim of this study was to determine whether health literacy predicts self-careamong patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) in a low-resource setting.

The study was a cross-sectional study conducted among 196 patients with CKD attending an urban facility in Kampala, Uganda.

Data were collected using the adopted health literacy scale (HLS-14 tool) and CKD self-care questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and linear regression were used in the data analyses. The statistical significance level was set at p < 0.05.

The mean age of the participants was 47.2 (13.3) years. Most participants were male (60%), and about 72% were at stage 5 of CKD. Only 6% had health insurance whereas 20% were employed. The participants had a mean self-care score of 65.39 (SD ±7.1) and a mean score of health literacy of 49.48 (SD ±11.2). Based on the bivariate analysis, self-care was associated with sex (p = 0.005), employment status (p = 0.003) and health literacy (p = 0.005). Results from the multivariable regression model show that self-care has a statistically significant positive association with health literacy (β = 0.167, t = 3.65, p ≤ 0.001) and employment (β = 4.45, t = 3.43, p ≤ 0.001) while controlling for other variables.

Our findings suggest that higher levels of health literacy are associated with improved self-care practices which are crucial for managing CKD efficiently. Health education should be provided as early as possible. This work can serve as a basis for future related studies in low-income settings.