Correlation between health literacy and health-related quality of life in patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy: The mediating role of self-management.
Yuqi Gao, Keshu Yan, Xiangru Yan and 3 others
PMID 36572957WHAT IT FOUND
In patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy, self-management partially mediated the link between health literacy and quality of life.
Higher health literacy and better self-management were associated with better physical and mental well-being, with self-management explaining about a third of the total effect.
Key findings
01Self-management partially mediated the relationship between health literacy and both physical and mental quality of life, accounting for 35.62% of the total effect on physical summary and 34.62% on mental summary.
02Health literacy and self-management were significant predictors of quality of life, with self-management showing stronger associations than health literacy for both physical and mental outcomes.
03Most patients had inadequate health literacy (74.1%) and low self-management scores, with physical and mental quality of life scores lower than general population norms.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Cross-sectional design cannot establish causality or temporal relationships between variables Convenience sampling from a single tertiary hospital in China limits generalisability to other populations and healthcare settings Self-reported measures are subject to recall bias and social desirability effects Severity of diabetic peripheral neuropathy was not assessed, so findings cannot be stratified by disease progression Unmeasured confounders such as pain levels, comorbidities, and psychological factors may influence the observed relationships
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest and received no funding from public or private sources.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the mediation findings as evidence that improving health literacy causes better quality of life. This cross-sectional study shows associations at one time point only, and the statistical mediation does not prove that health literacy leads to self-management which leads to quality of life outcomes. Longitudinal or interventional studies are needed before assuming that health literacy programmes will improve self-management and quality of life.