O10 Health literacy in older people with type 2 diabetes: preliminary findings

Introduction Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) is highly prevalent in people aged 65 or more. Low levels of health literacy (HL) affect negatively clinical health outcomes. Characterising the HL of this population is fundamental to design effective interventions, such as self-care support.

Objectives To assess the HL of older people with T2D.

Methods Cross sectional study, part of the VASelfCare project (LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-024250). Ethical approval was obtained. Non-probability sampling of eligible participants was carried out in two Family Health Units (Lisbon region). Data was collected through the Portuguese versions of HLS-EU (0-50 score; three subscales) and the Newest Vital Sign (NVS). Descriptive and bivariate statistics were conducted with SPSS v25.

Results Preliminary findings are based on a sample (n = 134) with an average age of 76.28 years (SD 6.48), 53.7% females, mostly married (64.2%) or widowers (23.1%) and with 6 years of schooling or less (66.4%). The average HLS-EU equalled 27.07 (SD 9.69), with 28.63 (SD 10.79) for Health Care Literacy, 29.88 (SD 10.45) for Disease Prevention Literacy and 26.97 (SD 11.28) for Health Promotion Literacy. The sample limited HL (HLS-EU < 33) was confirmed by the average NVS of 3.19 (SD 1.98). Both instruments were positively correlated (rho=0.475, p < 0.001).

There was no significant difference in HL between genders or civil state for both instruments. Correlations with age showed significant results for both HLS-EU (rho=-0.282, p = 0.004) and NVS (rho=-0.294, p < 0.001). Those with a degree or secondary schooling scored higher on HLS-EU compared with the lower education strata (p < 0.05). For the NVS, graduates had overall significantly better results than the two lower education groups (p < 0.003).

Conclusions HL reduces with increasing age. A significant association emerged between the education level and HL in older people with T2D. The sample has limited HL, which highlights the importance of interventions targeting this construct.