Tools to Measure Health Literacy among US African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos with Type 2 Diabetes: A Scoping Review of the Literature

Impact of a multicomponent integrated care delivery program on diabetes care goals achievement: a primary care quality improvement initiative

AIM

To evaluate the impact of multicomponent integrated care (MIC) delivery program in a primary care real-life setting on diabetes care goals.

METHODS

Patients with T2D and usual primary care from the public health system in Mexico were invited to participate in a five-month ambulatory MIC quality initiative (DIAbetes Empowerment and Improvement of Care program, DIABEMPIC).

RESULTS

841 patients who finished the program and with complete data were analyzed. The patients had a mean decrease in hemoglobin A1c, systolic and diastolic pressure, and LDL-cholesterol of 2.4%, 9 mmHg, 3 mmHg, and 22.5 mg/dL, respectively (p < 0.001). The achievement of the optimal triple target goal increased from 1.8% to 26.7% (p < 0.001). In the adjusted analysis, the diabetes knowledge and global self-care behavior score post-intervention, as well as the increment of global self-care behavior score were associated with the optimal composite risk factor control achievement.

CONCLUSION

The incorporation of diabetes therapeutic education interventions to improve self-care behaviors along with adequate treatment intensification in diabetes care are fundamental to attaining optimal risk factor control and attenuating disease burden.

Adherence to antidiabetic treatment in primary health care in individuals with type 2 diabetes. A survey including socio-demographic, patient related and clinical factors

BACKGROUND

Adherence to medications is a critical element in diabetes management.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate patient-related factors associated with adherence to antidiabetic treatment in patients with type 2 diabetes in primary health-care units.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study among patients receiving diabetes care in 18 primary care units in Mexico City was conducted. Data were collected from medical records and medical interviews. Adherence to antidiabetic therapy and patient-related factors associated with adherence were evaluated through a self-administered questionnaire. Socio-demographic, clinical, behavioral (self-care activities including a healthy diet, exercise or physical activity, self-monitoring of blood glucose testing, and foot care), and patients-adherence-related factors (health-care provider-patient communication; daily and social activities, and support network; alternative treatment beliefs; comorbidity, diabetes symptoms, and treatment; side effects and treatment access) were compared between the adherent and non-adherent group.

RESULTS

Of 319 outpatients, 48.3% were adherent to their antidiabetic therapy. In the adjusted analysis, patient-related factors associated to adherence were exercise and physical activity self-care behavior (OR=1.26; 95%CI 1.09-1.46), treatment interference with daily activities (OR=0.27; 95%CI 0.14-0.52), not satisfied with resolution of questions by the physician (OR=0.42; 95%CI 0.19-0.94), independently to increased cardiovascular risk and insulin treatment.

CONCLUSION

A low proportion of outpatients with T2D with regular primary care were adherent to diabetes treatment and this was associated with patient-related factors like answering patients' treatment-related questions by the physician. This information may be useful to identify patients at risk for low adherence, and to guide the design of quality-of-care strategies, like diabetes education programs to address suboptimal adherence in patients, and health-care professional communication skills training, particularly in primary care health systems.

Development and psychometric analysis of a new tool to assess food literacy in diabetic patients

Background

One of the factors affecting self-care in diabetic patients is food literacy, which helps said patients in following a healthy diet. Thus, it is crucial to analyze food literacy in diabetic patients through suitable and reliable instruments. 

Objective

The current study aimed to design a questionnaire for food literacy assessment in diabetic patients and analyze its psychometric features.

Method

The present study was a cross-sectional descriptive analysis carried out in 2021. Firstly, the concepts of food literacy in diabetic patients were identified and the questionnaire was deigned based on them. Secondly, its face and content validities and its reliability were analyzed. Finally, the construct validity was analyzed by exploratory factor analysis. The study was carried out on 300 diabetic participants chosen at random via stratified cluster sampling from Health service centers. The exploratory factor analysis was carried out by extracting the main factors and using varimax rotation with eigenvalue values more than 1.

Results

A five-pronged structure accounted for 52.745% of food literacy variance. This included the ability to read food facts, practical ability to group foods, the ability to identify the caloric content of different foods, the ability to understand the effect of food on health, and the ability to prepare a healthy meal. Items with an impact score below 1.5 were discarded. Additionally, items with CVR scores below 0.62 and CVI scores below 0.79 were deleted too. The Kaiser-Meyer-Okin measurement was 0.836 (p < 0.001). Alpha Cronbach Scale dimension was 0.610–0.951.

Conclusion

The results of this study showed that the exploratory dimensions of the current study were consistent with health literacy measurements, such as functional, interactive, and critical food literacy. This scale has acceptable reliability and validity. Health professionals can use this scale to analyze and improve food literacy in diabetic patients. This is a new instrument and thus far no questionnaire has been made to evaluate food literacy in diabetic patients.

Measuring health literacy: A systematic review and bibliometric analysis of instruments from 1993 to 2021

BACKGROUND

It has been about 30 years since the first health literacy instrument was developed. This study aimed to review all existing instruments to summarize the current knowledge on the development of existing measurement instruments and their possible translation and validation in other languages different from the original languages.

METHODS

The review was conducted using PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar on all published papers on health literacy instrument development and psychometric properties in English biomedical journals from 1993 to the end of 2021.

RESULTS

The findings were summarized and synthesized on several headings, including general instruments, condition specific health literacy instruments (disease & content), population- specific instruments, and electronic health. Overall, 4848 citations were retrieved. After removing duplicates (n = 2336) and non-related papers (n = 2175), 361 studies (162 papers introducing an instrument and 199 papers reporting translation and psychometric properties of an original instrument) were selected for the final review. The original instruments included 39 general health literacy instruments, 90 condition specific (disease or content) health literacy instruments, 22 population- specific instruments, and 11 electronic health literacy instruments. Almost all papers reported reliability and validity, and the findings indicated that most existing health literacy instruments benefit from some relatively good psychometric properties.

CONCLUSION

This review highlighted that there were more than enough instruments for measuring health literacy. In addition, we found that a number of instruments did not report psychometric properties sufficiently. However, evidence suggest that well developed instruments and those reported adequate measures of validation could be helpful if appropriately selected based on objectives of a given study. Perhaps an authorized institution such as World Health Organization should take responsibility and provide a clear guideline for measuring health literacy as appropriate.