Health Literacy and Cognitive Disorders in Diabetic Patients

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease affecting over 500 million adults worldwide, which is over 10% of the world’s population. Diabetes is associated with a high risk of complications, including cognitive impairment of varying severity. Effective treatment of diabetes requires the patients not only to follow medical recommendations, but also to have appropriate health literacy (HL). The aim of the study was to determine the level of health literacy in diabetes patients, taking into account their cognitive functions. Methods: the study design consists of an anonymous survey involving 312 patients with type 1 and 2 diabetes, treated at the Diabetology Clinic of the Institute of Rural Health in Lublin, Poland. The survey was based on two standardized research tools, the 47-item European Health Literacy Questionnaire (EU-HLS-Q47) and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and an original questionnaire focusing on the patients’ health situation, metric questions, questions about self-assessment of knowledge, and educational needs. Results: The EU-HLS-Q47 and MMSE showed that diabetic patients mostly presented a sufficient level of health literacy. A limited level of health literacy was presented by 36.86% of the examined diabetic patients. A statistically significant relationship between the length of diabetes (in years) and the General Health Literacy, Health Care, and Health Promotion Indices was reported. The MMSE test showed that every third patient with diabetes had cognitive disorders of varying intensity. Conclusions: Patients with diabetes and their family members require coordinated care and targeted therapeutic education to prepare them for self-care and self-control so as to reduce the risk of complications.