The purpose of this study was to investigate health literacy, diabetic knowledge, and diabetic self-care among foreign diabetic patients at a hospital in South Korea.
Participants was 134 foreign patients diagnosed with diabetes and who understand English. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 20.0.
Health literacy significantly differed with HbA1c levels, whereas diabetic knowledge significantly differed with education levels, and time since diagnosed. Diabetic self-care significantly differed with time since the diagnosis. Health literacy significantly differed with diabetic knowledge and diabetic self-care. There was a correlation between health literacy and diabetic knowledge and between diabetic knowledge and diabetic self-care but not between health literacy and diabetic self-care.
There are significant results on health literacy, diabetic knowledge and diabetic self-care. Subject with adequate health literacy had high scores on diabetic knowledge and self-care.
General Characteristics and Disease related Cha racteristics (
Characteristics | Categories | n (%) |
---|---|---|
Age (year) | ≤19 | 12 (9.0) |
20~39 | 19 (14.2) | |
40~59 | 71 (53.0) | |
≥60 | 32 (23.8) | |
Gender | Male | 84 (62.7) |
Female | 50 (37.3) | |
Ethnic | American | 121 (90.3) |
European | 13 (9.7) | |
Education level | <High school | 7 (5.2) |
High school | 23 (17.2) | |
College | 71 (53.0) | |
Graduate school | 33 (24.6) | |
Duration of DM (year) | <1 | 32 (23.9) |
≥1~<5 | 49 (36.6) | |
≥5~<10 | 18 (13.4) | |
≥10 | 35 (26.1) | |
Duration of staying Korea (year) | <1 | 33 (24.6) |
≥1~<5 | 63 (47.0) | |
≥5~<10 | 11 (8.2) | |
≥10 | 27 (20.2) | |
Smoking | Yes | 14 (10.4) |
No | 120 (89.6) | |
HbA1c | <6.5% | 128 (95.5) |
≥6.5% | 6 (4.5) |
Levels of Health Literacy, Diabetic Knowledge, and Self-care (
Characteristics | n (%) or M±SD | Range |
---|---|---|
Health literacy | 4.33±1.79 | 0~6 |
Limited literacy | 13 (9.7) | 0~1 |
Possibility of limited literacy | 20 (14.9) | 2~3 |
Adequate literacy | 101 (75.4) | 4~6 |
Diabetic knowledge | 13.97±4.16 | 0~23 |
Self-care behaviors | 3.77±1.27 | 0~7 |
Diet | 3.94±1.41 | 0~7 |
Exercise | 3.60±1.83 | 0~7 |
Blood glucose test | 3.70±2.56 | 0~7 |
Foot care | 3.66±1.92 | 0~7 |
Health Literacy, Diabetic Knowledge and Self-care according to the Participants' Characteristics (
Characteristics | Categories | Health literacy | Diabetic knowledge | Self-care | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
M±SD | t or F ( |
M±SD | t or F ( |
M±SD | t or F ( |
||
Gender | Male | 4.31±1.64 | -0.15 | 13.74±3.87 | -0.80 | 3.85±1.32 | 0.91 |
Female | 4.36±2.04 | (.882) | 14.36±4.62 | (.426) | 3.64±1.19 | (.362) | |
Age (year) | ≤19 | 3.42±2.07 | 2.34 | 130±5.34 | 1.77 | 4.16±0.95 | 2.41 |
20~39 | 3.84±1.61 | (.076) | 12.21±3.69 | (.157) | 3.39±0.85 | (.070) | |
40~59 | 4.65±1.54 | 14.44±4.00 | 3.62±1.37 | ||||
≥60 | 4.25±2.17 | 14.34±4.14 | 4.18±1.26 | ||||
Education | <High schoola | 2.86±2.19 | 2.49 | 9.29±3.73 | 3.87 | 3.71±1.03 | 0.01 |
High scoolb | 4.00±1.86 | (.064) | 14.87±3.48 | (.011) | 3.79±1.25 | (.998) | |
Collegec | 4.39±1.63 | 13.83±4.28 | a<b, c, d | 3.78±1.19 | |||
Graduate schoold | 4.73±1.89 | 14.64±3.86 | 3.75±1.53 | ||||
Duration of DM | <1a | 4.09±2.04 | 0.82 | 13.22±3.93 | 4.19 | 3.77±1.31 | 2.88 |
≥1~<5b | 4.16±1.81 | (.484) | 12.90±4.13 | (.007) | 3.61±1.05 | (.039) | |
≥5~<10c | 4.72±1.36 | 14.61±2.87 | a, b<d | 3.29±1.57 | c<d | ||
≥10d | 4.57±1.74 | 15.83±4.39 | 4.25±1.25 | ||||
Duration of staying Korea | <1a | 3.76±1.77 | 1.85 | 12.12±4.69 | 3.39 | 3.56±1.16 | 1.24 |
≥1~<5b | 4.63±1.80 | (.142) | 14.89±4.10 | (.020) | 3.86±1.20 | (.297) | |
≥5~<10c | 4.55±1.97 | 13.91±4.70 | 4.31±1.52 | ||||
≥10d | 4.22±1.65 | 14.11±2.52 | 3.60±1.43 | ||||
Smoking | Yes | 3.86±2.28 | -0.84 | 13.71±4.91 | -0.24 | 3.19±1.37 | -1.84 |
No | 4.38±1.73 | (.417) | 14.00±4.08 | (.809) | 3.84±1.25 | (.069) | |
HbA1c (%) | <6.5% | 5.83±0.41 | 6.83 | 15.83±1.83 | 2.33 | 3.79±1.28 | 0.89 |
≥6.5% | 4.26±1.80 | (<.001) | 13.88±4.22 | (.049) | 3.32±1.11 | (.373) |
Comparison of Diabetic Knowledge and Self-care according to the Health Literacy (
Variables | Diabetic knowledge | Self-care | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
M±SD | t or F ( |
M±SD | t or F ( |
|
Limited literacya | 10.00±2.92 | 13.85 | 2.85±1.10 | 4.28 |
Possibility of limited literacyb | 11.70±4.00 | (<.001) | 4.06±1.14 | (.016) |
Adequate literacyc | 14.93±3.86 | a, b<c | 3.83±1.27 | a<b, c |
Correlation between Health Literacy, Diabetic Knowledge, and Self-care (
Variables | Health literacy | Diabetic knowledge | Self-care |
---|---|---|---|
Health literacy | 1.00 | ||
Diabetic knowledge | .55 |
1.00 | |
Self-care | .13 | .29 |
1.00 |
*