ESPE Abstracts (2015) 84 P-3-748

ESPE2015 Poster Category 3 Diabetes (94 abstracts)

Health Literacy of Caregivers of Children with Type 1 Diabetes: A Pilot Study on Impact on Glycaemic Control in an Arabic-Speaking Population

Dalia Al-Abdulrazzaq a , Muneera Alhaddad b , Amani Al-fadhli a , Amna Alyousef b , Abeer Altararwa b & Iman Albasari b


aKuwait University, Kuwait, Kuwait; bMinistry of Health, Kuwait, Kuwait


Introduction: Health literacy has been linked to poorer diabetes control and outcomes. Caregivers with poor health literacy may fail to comprehend various elements of diabetes education leading to poor glycaemic control of their children. No studies to date had investigated the link between caregivers’ health literacy and their children’s glycaemic control in an Arabic-speaking population.

Objectives and hypothesis: Our aim is to study the link between caregivers’ health literacy level and their children’s glycaemic control. We hypothesise that children of caregivers with poor health literacy will have poorer glycaemic control.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of a pilot of caregivers of children with type 1 diabetes in a Diabetes centre in Kuwait. Health literacy was assessed through administering the Arabic version of the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) tool. The child’s glycaemic control was measured through the level of HbA1C within 3 months of the test administration.

Results: Twenty caregivers were recruited with a median age of 37.0 years (IQR 35.5 – 41.5). The median age of their children was 8.9 years (IQR 6.2 – 11.1) with a BMI SDS of 0.6 (IQR −0.5 – 1.7). Median HbA1C was 8.6 (IQR 7.8 – 9.2) with children of caregivers with high likelihood of limited health literacy having poorer glycaemic control compared to those without (HbA1C 9.3, and 8.3 respectively, P=0.02).

Conclusion: This study highlights the possible link between caregivers’ health literacy and their children’s glycaemic control in Arabic-speaking populations. This should be confirmed in future studies with larger samples.

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