Association of Functional Health Literacy Among Patients With Type-2 Diabetes in Bangladesh: A Cross-sectional Study
Md. Monirul Islam, Syed Billal Hossain, Kazi Mahfujur Rahman, Meheruba Khan Sinthia, A.B.M. Alauddin Chowdhury, Salim KhanObjective:
Functional health literacy (FHL) plays a dynamic role in diabetes care, yet research on its implications is erratic in Bangladesh. The aim of this study was to ascertain the level of FHL among patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in Dhaka and its correlation with their glycemic level, lifestyle, sleep quality, and sociodemographic characteristics.
Methods:
A total of 401 patients with T2D were included by simple random sampling method in this cross-sectional study from three diabetes centers in Dhaka. A Bengali adaptation of the S-TOFHLA (Short Test of Functional Health Literacy) and a semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data on FHL and other study information. Bivariate analysis, multi-nominal regression, Pearson's χ
2
test, and Cramér's V coefficient was used to assess the correlations between variables, with a significance threshold of
Key Results:
Among the 401 participants, 59% were female and 34.9% lived in rural areas; among whom only 27.3% had adequate FHL. Sex, occupation, education, income, physical activity regularity, diabetes treatment regimen, family history, current fasting blood sugar (FBS), 3-month average FBS, 3-month average 2-hour after breakfast blood glucose, and hemoglobin A1c showed significant associations (
Conclusions:
Higher FHL was associated with better diabetes management. FHL interventions should be evaluated to determine if increasing a patient's health literacy will improve their diabetes management.