Open AccessEffects of health literacy improvement program on self-care behaviors and health outcomes in older adults with type 2 diabetes and hypertension comorbidities
Author(s) -
Pimnada Kakahthum,
Sunee Lagampan,
Kwanjai Amnartsatsue
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
journal of public health and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2673-0774
DOI - 10.55131/jphd/2022/200203
Subject(s) - medicine , health literacy , physical therapy , post hoc analysis , repeated measures design , bonferroni correction , descriptive statistics , diabetes mellitus , analysis of variance , gerontology , randomized controlled trial , health care , statistics , mathematics , endocrinology , economics , economic growth
Health literacy is a necessary factor affecting self-care behaviors. This randomized control trial research aimed to study the effects of a health literacy improvement program on self-care behaviors and health outcomes in older adult patients with diabetes and hypertension comorbidities. Older adults at a private primary care unit, Bangkok, Thailand; aged 60-69 years, who had been diagnosed with diabetes and hypertension, were selected by simple random sampling into experimental and control groups, of 30 people each. The experimental group received eight weeks of a health literacy improvement program. Group activities were held in three sessions at 4-week intervals. The control group received standard care only. Data were collected by using interview questionnaires at baseline, post-intervention, and follow-up. Research instrumentation included collected data on general characteristics and illness history. Health literacy, self-care behavior, healthy eating, physical activity, stress management, and medication adherence scales were also included. In addition, blood pressure and HbA1C were examined at baseline and follow-up. Descriptive statistics, independent t-test, chi-square, Repeated Measures ANOVA, and Bonferroni post hoc test were used for data analysis. After the intervention and follow-up, the experimental group had the following mean scores: health literacy (ME.118.33±7.79, 123±4.90; MC 94.53±7.51; 94.17±5.86, p< .001), self-care behaviors in healthy eating (ME 49.10±3.14, 52.13±3.19; MC 43.70±2.83, 43.66±3.25, p< .001), physical activities (ME36.90±2.26, 38.53±2.56; MC 26.90±2.67,26.83±2.67, p<.001), stress management (ME26.83±1.89, 28.30±1.89; MC 21.33±2.00,21.60±2.09, p<.001), and medication adherence (ME34.60±2.47, 36.07±1.87; MC 27.40±2.64, 28.30±3.18, p< .001), all of which were significantly higher than the control group. Furthermore, HbA1C (Diff_ME -0.46±0.50; Diff_MC.0.06±0.45, p< .05) and systolic blood pressure (Diff_ME -9.70±9.29; Diff_MC. -1.26± 12.89, p< .05) were significantly lower than the control group.