Health literacy of adults from primary care with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a cross-sectional study.
Robson Giovani Paes, Isabella Bueno Fusculim, Luciane Lachouski and 3 others
PMID 40392022WHAT IT FOUND
Adults with type 2 diabetes in primary care who had less schooling reported the most difficulty understanding health information and knowing what to do.
Men and people with lower fasting glucose reported easier interaction with health professionals.
Key findings
01Participants with five years of schooling or less had lower scores for understanding health information and knowing what to do than participants with more than 12 years.
02Ability to interact with health professionals was reported as associated with male sex (p = 0.057) and with fasting blood glucose of 130 mg/dL or less (p = 0.033).
03Scores for understanding health information and knowing what to do were linked to education, family income, and HbA1c.
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 show that education, sex, or glucose levels caused health literacy differences. Only 169 of 596 contacted users participated, and 381 did not answer or respond, so the sample may not represent all adults with type 2 diabetes in the area. The study was done in six primary care units in one municipality, so findings may not generalise to other regions or populations. Companions were present during some questionnaire applications, especially interviews, and may have affected answers. One participant did not report family income, and four of 25 requested tests were not performed, leaving 165 participants with HbA1c and fasting glucose values. The paper used p < 0.05 as significant but reported an association with male sex at p = 0.057. External factors such as health policies and financing changes may have influenced health literacy levels.
Declared interests
Financial support came from Capes for a doctoral scholarship and from CNPq under process 401923/2024-0. No competing interests are reported in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these findings as proof that low education causes poor diabetes understanding or that men have better health literacy. This was a cross-sectional study, and the sex association was reported at p = 0.057, above the paper's p < 0.05 threshold.