Health Literacy Interventions, Self-Efficacy and  Physiologic Measures Among Adults with Diabetes   in a Tertiary Hospital in Ilocos Norte, Philippines
Creators: name: Najera, Maita Gretchen
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Diabetes Mellitus
Health Literacy Intervention
Self-Efficacy

description: The study explored the association of outcome variables such as self-efficacy and physiologic measures (capillary blood sugar and blood pressure) before and after a health-literacy intervention on diabetes and hypertension. The research focused on health literacy, which is a major contributor and a fundamental factor in the development of public health interventions, and how it relates to managing diabetes.  Low health literacy has been linked to lower self-management behaviors and poor medication adherence in diabetic patients.


A pretest-posttest one-group study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of diabetes health literacy intervention. Subjects were recruited using purposive sampling with the following inclusion criteria: (1) DM type II patients with hypertension stage II as comorbidity aged 18 years old to 60 years old seen at the outpatient department of a tertiary hospital in Ilocos Norte, (2) diagnosed with diabetes mellitus type II and hypertension stage II for at least one year, (3) able to write and read and can be helped to fill in the questionnaire, (4) willing to participate, and (5) patients who have and who were willing to purchase their own BP apparatus and glucometer or have access to centers while BP and CBG monitoring were done as instructed. Moreover, the study was conducted in a 200-bed capacity tertiary level teaching and training hospital in Ilocos Norte that provides clinical care and management on the prevailing diseases in the area, as well as specialized and sub-specialized forms of treatment, surgical procedure, and intensive care. It is the only Medical Center situated in Northern Luzon, which caters to the provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Abra, Northtern Cagayan as well as Kalinga Apayao. Data were collected for three months, and participants were recruited by means of posters that were put up in front of the clinics.


Significant findings revealed that self-efficacy is low before health literacy intervention, whereas it is higher after the intervention. Likewise, systolic blood pressure is high before intervention, and low after health literacy intervention. Capillary blood sugar is high before the health literacy intervention, whereas it is lower after the health literacy intervention. Age, sex, and diet are not significantly related to self-efficacy, blood pressure and capillary blood sugar. Moreover, education and duration of diabetes is significant to their self-efficacy, blood pressure, and capillary blood sugar. Meanwhile, the implementation of a health literacy intervention is hindered by lack of support for the study, shortage of respondents, and the withdrawal of respondents. In addition, successful recruitment of participants via rapport, passionate health care workers, willingness to persuade patients to engage, and optimal scheduling were all variables that helped administer the health literacy treatments. Health literacy interventention in self-efficacy improves self-care management among type 2 adult diabetic patients. The intervention provided interactions with nurses provding education support to engage towards self-care behaviors.


This study recommends that health literacy intervention may be implemented to support the goals of diabetes education to manage their symptoms and that similar health literacy intervention may be considered to other diseases preferably among the top ten causes of mortality and morbidity.
description: Master Thesis for Master of Arts in Nursing