Education for Health, Dietary Habits, Nutritional Status and Indicators of Metabolic Risk

A low level of functional education is a risk factor for lower levels of health literacy which in turn is considered to be a mediator in health results, currently representing an issue of interest in research on the management of the individual’s state of health. Objectives: To determine the effects of literacy on health through the mediation of dietary habits on nutritional status - Body Mass Index (BMI) and indicators of metabolic risk – Abdominal Perimeter (AP), Neck Circumference (NC), Capillary glycaemia. Methods: Descriptive study carried out on an objective sample of 508 Portuguese citizens (52.2% males and 47.8% females) with an average age of 44.48 years. The Questionário Europeu de Literacia em Saúde (HLS-EU-PT) (Nunes & Sorensen, 2013) (The European Questionnaire on Health Literacy) was applied and the dietary habits were assessed and the BMI, AP, NC and glycaemic levels were established. Results: The majority of participants (73.62%) were shown to have a health literacy deficit. The effect of the interaction between health literacy and dietary habits has a direct effect on abdominal perimeter and on neck circumference, although it is not found to be associated with variation in BMI. Conclusion: Differences in the level of health literacy were consistently associated with an increase in metabolic and cardiovascular risk. It is accepted that health literacy may affect disparities in indicators for the state of health. Priorities for future action to promote behaviours leading to the observation of healthy lifestyles including health literacy programmes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio