Research Study

Octavio Ruiz, MDMonica Vidal, DO

Research Study

Association Between Diabetes Education and Diabetes

Outcomes

Health Literacy is defined as a patient ability to understand and follow medical instructions

Majority of patients in the clinic who have diabetes have trouble reading, writing and managing their diabetes

Goal of the Study

Diabetic class and improvement in diabetes outcomes

208 patients, 18 years and older which had type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes were studied

Studied from 1/06 to 4/06

Literacy

Literacy

63%

37%

literate 132

illiterate 76

Class Attendance

Class Attendance

24%

76%

class

no class

Hg A1C with Class Attendance

Hg A1C with Class Attendance

67%

33%

Less than 7.0

More than 7.0

Hg A1c without Class Attendance

Hg A1C without Class Attendance

26%

74%

Less than 7.0

More than 7.0

Retinopathy Illiterate

Retinopathy Illiterate

57%

43%

Retinopathy

No Retinopathy

Retinopathy Literate

Retinopathy Literate

19%

81%

Retinopathy

No Retinopathy

Conclusions

Inadequate health literacy is asscociated with worse glycemic control

The diabetes care regimen is one of the most challenging of any for chronic illness

Diabetes outcomes are very sensitive to problems with communication

Efforts should focus on developing interventions to improve diabetes outcomes in patients with inadequare health literacy