The Link Between Health Literacy and Three Conditions of Metabolic Syndrome: Obesity, Diabetes and Hypertension
Related Research units
Abstract
Methods: We used data from the Hamburg Diabetes Prevention Survey, a population-based cross-sectional study in Germany. The 1349 eligible subjects were 18– 60 years old. The European Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q16) was used to assess HL. Depending on the reported number of metabolic syndrome conditions (CMS), four groups were categorized as follows: “ 0”, any “ 1”, any “ 2” and “ 3” CMS. Ordered logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between HL level (independent variable) and the reported number of CMS (dependent variable) adjusted for age, gender and education.
Results: 63.9% of subjects (n=862) reported having “ 0”, 25.7% (n=346) only “ 1”, 8.2% (n=111) only “ 2” and 2.2% (n=30) “ 3” of the three CMS. In the group with sufficient HL, rates of “ 1,” “ 2,” or “ 3” CMS were lower than in the group with problematic or inadequate HL. Subjects with inadequate HL showed a 1.62-fold higher risk of having a higher number of CMS than subjects with sufficient HL (OR 1.62; 95% CI 1.13 to 2.31). The risk increased with each life year (OR 1.05; 95% CI 1.04 to 1.06), and was higher in persons with low education (OR 2.89; 95% CI 2.08 to 4.01) than in highly educated persons. Women showed lower risk (OR 0.73; 95% CI 0.58 to 0.91) than men.
Conclusion: Lower HL was associated with a higher number of MS conditions. Our findings suggest that HL intervention on health-promoting behaviors could help reduce MS risk in people with limited HL.
Bibliographical data
Original language | English |
---|---|
ISSN | 1178-7007 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2022 |