Sağlık Ve Diyabet Okuryazarlığı: Hacettepe Üniversitesi Hastaneleri Örneği

Abstract

Health literacy and diabetes literacy which is related to diabetes mellitus mean the ability to have access, understand, evaluate and use basic information related to services and decisions. Adequate levels of health and diabetes literacy will help people in the resolution and prevention of individual and social problems. While there are several researches in this respect in the world, it is seen that such researches are inadequate in Turkey. In this study, demographic characteristics of diabetic patients, levels of health literacy, health information source preferences, features related to health information, problems with access to health information, educational needs for access to medical information about diabetes, diabetes literacy levels, attitudes, and the relationship between health literacy and diabetes literacy were determined. A total of 105 type 2 diabetics aged 40 years and over who are being treated for one year and over in Hacettepe University Adult Hospital Department of Endocrinology have participated in the research. The descriptive method was used in this study and the printed questionnaire was used as the data collection technique. As a result of the study participants' health and diabetes literacy levels seem to be adequate and excellent. Among the participants, "Specialists (doctors, pharmacists, nurses, etc.)", "audiovisual information sources" and "internet-web" are in the order of preference for the health information source. The most preferred health information sources’ features among participants are accessibility, up-to-dateness and correctness. The three most important problems faced by research participants in access to information are "inadequate skill in order to use electronic media", "Difficulty in selecting the right information" and "inadequate information about the sources". A large majority of diabetic patients are in need of training in diabetic medical information access. It was also determined that participants preferred “face to face services” and "one-on-one training services". A "model for health and diabetes literacy" was proposed in our research. After describing the model, the "Diyabetle Yaşam" portal was developed. Main sections of the portal are home page, topics, information and announcements, videos, about us and contact us. The portal we developed aim to provide active information services within the framework of health and diabetes literacy.