Explaining variance in health literacy among people with type 2 diabetes: the association between health literacy and health behaviour and empowerment

Table 3 Health literacy across levels of person factors, general health, diabetes outcome, health behaviours and empowerment

	n (%) / mean (sd)^a	HL mean (sd)	P value
Gender	n (%)
Male	207 (53)	0.653 (1.43)	0.149
Female	165 (43)	0.881 (1.62)
Education	n (%)
Compulsory comprehensive/upper secondary school	196 (51)	0.599 (1.50)	0.001
University/university college	118 (30)	1.195 (1.70)
Age
≤ 73 years, n (%)	187 (48)	0.748 (1.47)	0.922
≥ 74 years, n (%)	188 (48)	0.763 (1.57)
General health	n (%)
Very good/good/fairly good	315 (82)	0.892 (1.55)	0.002
Bad/ very bad	64 (17)	0.235 (1.34)
HbA1c (%)^b
≤ 7.0%, n (%)	132 (34)	0.953 (1.51)	0.319
≥ 7.1%, n (%)	180 (46)	0.778 (1.54)
Health behaviour
Physical activity^c	n (%)
Every or almost every day	119 (31)	0.772 (1.46)	0.997
Less activity	235 (61)	0.772 (1.52)
Health condition not compatible with physical activity	17 (4)
Missing	17 (4)
Smoking^d
Daily or now and then	16 (4)	1.491 (1.42)	0.052
Never or former smoker	361 (93)	0.733 (1.52)
Missing	11 (3)
Alcohol consumption^e
No	177 (46)	0.740 (1.58)	0.728
Yes	195 (50)	0.795 (1.47)
Missing	16 (4)
Empowerment-related indicators
Control of own health	n (%)
Difficult	120 (31)	0.229 (1.53)	< 0.001
Easy	251 (65)	1.044 (1.46)
Missing	17 (4)
Implement goals about own health
Difficult	204 (53)	0.425 (1.32)	< 0.001
Easy	166 (43)	1.213 (1.63)
Missing	18 (5)
Take responsibility for own health
Difficult	127 (33)	0.213 (1.32)	< 0.001
Easy	243 (63)	1.075 (1.54)
Missing	18 (5)
Participate actively in health communication
Difficult	111 (29)	0.086 (1.20)	< 0.001
Easy	223 (57)	1.105 (1.61)
Missing	54 (14)

HL: person-location estimates (logit values) of health literacy by means of the HLS-Q12 of Finbråten et al. [41]. Higher values indicate higher HL
^aContinuous data: mean (standard deviation [sd]); categorical data: frequencies, n (percentage [%])
^bHighest recommended HbA1c level in people with T2DM is 7% (53 mmol/mol)
^cHow often have you been physically active for at least 30 min during the last 30 days?
^dHow would you best describe your use of tobacco?
^eHow often did you drink alcohol during the last 30 days?

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