Abstract

Introduction: Type II diabetes is a non- communicable disease with silent epidemiology, which has physical, psychological, and social consequences. Patients’ quality of life is affected by their level of health literacy, as well as their perception and interpretation of receiving care services at the right time. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the relationship of quality of life with health literacy in male patients with type II diabetes.

Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was of correlational design. The sample population consisted of all the men suffering from type 2 diabetes in Harsin, 170 of whom were selected through simple random sampling. The data collection tools were the Quality of life questionnaire (SF-36) and Health Literacy for Iranian Adults (HELIA). To analyze the data, Pearson product-moment correlation and multiple regression were performed.

Results: There was a significant positive relationship between health literacy and quality of life (P<0.01), that is, increased level of health literacy enhances quality of life from the physical, psychological, and social perspectives. In addition, quality of life and its aspects can predict 0.32 variance of accessibility, reading, perception, assessment, and decision-making of health literacy in patients with diabetes type II (P<0.01).

Conclusion: The findings emphasize on the fact that health literacy and its aspects are crucial for optimum quality of patients. Thus, mental health professionals should consider these two health elements.