The Effect of Health Literacy in Women on Their Level Of Knowledge About Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors and Their Risk of Diabetes

Background: Health literacy is important not only for reading efficiency but also for early diagnosis of diseases and risk awareness. Objective: This study was conducted to determine the effect of health literacy on the level of knowledge of women regarding cardiovascular disease risk factors and their risk of developing diabetes. Method: The study employs a cross-sectional design. The research sample consists of 300 women. The data was collected by face-to-face survey method between January and July 2021. A Personal Information Form, the Turkish Health Literacy Scale-32 (THLS-32), the Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Knowledge Level (CARRF-KL) Scale and the Finnish Diabetes Risk Score (FINDRISC) Questionnaire were used in the study. Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test were used to evaluate the data. Results: It was determined that one third of the women had inadequate THLS-32 scores and that their mean CARRF-KL and FINDRISC scores were moderate. The mean THLS-32 scale scores of those with a low education level and poor health perception were found to be lower (p