Health Literacy Factors Associated with Quality of Life Among Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients in Nikhom Nam-Un District, Sakon Nakhon Province

Abstract

This cross-sectional analytical research endeavored to study the health literacy and quality of life levels and to identify the factors associated with the quality of life among patient with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) in Nikhom Nam-Un district, Sakon Nakhon province. The study population was 590 persons with type 2 DM living in the district. Two hundred and four participants were systematically, randomly selected.  Data were collected using a questionnaire by interview technique in February 2019, then analyzed using percentage, mean, standard deviation, minimum, maximum, and multiple logistic regression models (with a 95% CI). The findings revealed that more than half of participants were female (64.71%) and the average age was 61.31 years old (SD = 11.45). The participants’ overall level of health literacy (58.82%) and quality of life (61.27%) were both moderate. The factors associated with the quality of life of patients with type 2 DM were health literacy related to their cognitive skill (AOR = 2.12, 95 % CI [1.17, 3.83]) and the skills needed to access to information (AOR  = 2.82, 95 % CI [1.56, 5.14]). So, promoting the cognitive skills and skills needed to access to health information of patients with type 2 DM is recommend.