THE RE LATIONSHIPS BETWEEN HEALTH LITERACY AND HEALTH CARE BEHAVIORS IN THE DIABETES MELLITUS RISK GROUP

Abstract

          This cross-sectional study aimed to study health literacy (exercise, food consumption), health behavior (exercise, food consumption), the association between personal factors, health literacy, and health behavior (exercise, food consumption) among the diabetes mellitus risk group. The sample was 224 of the diabetes mellitus risk group who live in Um-mao sub-District, Thatphanom district, Nakhonphanom Province selected by random sampling. Data was collected by the questionnaire and analyzed by using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics, Chi-square test, and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. The study result showed that all participants had a poor level of health literacy at 100% and a poor level of health behavior at 89.29%. The personal factors included marriage status, education, and occupational-related health behavior (exercise, food consumption) with statistical significance at p-value <0.05. Moreover, the level of health literacy related to health behavior (exercise, food consumption) with statistical significance at p-value <0.05. From this study, there are some suggestions that the health care workers should promote health literacy in the diabetes mellitus risk group with the suitable health education program that the participants can change health care behaviors.