 |
 |

Health Literacy and Diabetic Control
 |
 |
| Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings. |
|
 |
 |
To the Editor: Dr Schillinger and colleagues1 found a relationship between health literacy and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels in low-income urban patients in San Francisco. Unlike Schillinger et al, however, we2 did not identify a relationship between health literacy and HbA1c levels among patients in North Carolina with poor diabetic control (HbA1c 8.0%). The lack of a significant relationship between literacy and HbA1c remained whether we treated literacy scores as a categorical variable or as a continuous measure, and did not change after adjustment for potential confounding variables. Similar to a previous study,3 we did find that patients with low literacy had significantly poorer knowledge about the treatment of diabetes. For example, patients with low literacy were less likely to know the treatment of low blood sugar or the normal range of blood glucose levels.
Several factors may explain our discordant findings. We examined only a subgroup of patients . . . [Full Text of this Article]
Tabitha Zimmerman, MD;
Donald W. Shenenberger, MD
Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Va
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES
Association of Numeracy and Diabetes Control
Cavanaugh et al.
ANN INTERN MED 2008;148:737-746.
ABSTRACT
| FULL TEXT
Influence of Patient Literacy on the Effectiveness of a Primary Care-Based Diabetes Disease Management Program
Rothman et al.
JAMA 2004;292:1711-1716.
ABSTRACT
| FULL TEXT
|