Abstract:
Background: Diabetic health literacy plays an important role in determining diabetic outcomes.
Despite the numerous health education programs, the outcome of the diabetic management
remains a challenge globally and studies on diabetic health literacy are still lacking in Ethiopia.
Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the magnitude of diabetic health literacy and
associated factors among diabetic patients attending outpatient department at public hospitals in
North Shoa Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia, 2022
Methods: Institution based cross-sectional study design was conducted from May24-June24,
2022 at four randomly selected hospitals among 623 total study participants. The comprehensive
15-items diabetic health literacy questionnaires were used to measure diabetic health literacy.
The data was collected by face to face interview and reviewing the patient chart. The participants
were selected by using systematic random sampling. Data was entered in to Epi data version 4.6
and was exported to Stata version 14.1 for analyses. Ordinal logistic regression was conducted
and a p-value < 0.05 was used to declare the presence of statistically significant association.
Result: a total of 611 participants were included in the study, giving a response rate of 98.1%. Of
all participants, 300(49.1%), 174(28.5%) and 137(22.4%) had Low, moderate and high diabetic
health literacy respectively. Factors found to be significantly associated with diabetic health
literacy were, age; less than 40 years old (AOR= 3.48; 95%CI=2.11, 5.77) and age 40-60 years
(AOR= 2.79; 95%CI=1.75,4.46), Educational status; can’t read and write (AOR = 0.29; 95%CI=
0.16, 0.56) read and write (AOR= 0.41; 95%CI=0.23, 0.74) and primary school (AOR = 0.45;
95%CI =0.27, 0.76), exposure to diabetic education (AOR= 1.84; 95% CI =1.31, 2.58) having ≥2
sources of information (AOR= 2.28;95% CI= 1.57,3.32) moderate social support (AOR =1.94;
95% CI=1.32,2.87), strong social support (AOR =2.73; 95% CI=1.75,4.26), and Residence; lives
in urban (AOR= 1.65; 95% CI=1.14,2.39)
Conclusion: The overall diabetic health literacy level was low compared to other studies
conducted in Ethiopia. Factors associated with diabetic Health Literacy were age, educational
status, sources of information, attending diabetic education, social support and residence.
Knowledge of these factors could be an entry toward helping patients and targeting interventions
to improve patient’s diabetic health literacy.
