Effect of information, education and communication activity on health literacy of diabetes among school going adolescents in Delhi

Background: Diabetes is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for nearly 3 million deaths annually. In India, it contributes to around 6-7 lakh deaths annually. Unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, tobacco consumption are the modifiable risk factors for diabetes. Many of these risk factors start from adolescence and continue till adulthood if no intervention is done. Diabetes can be treated and its consequences avoided or delayed with diet, physical activity, medication and regular screening and treatment for complications, however the decisions to take above steps needs certain level of health literacy. Methods: It was a school‑based interventional study conducted in two government schools of Delhi among students of classes 6 to 8. After the baseline data on level of knowledge regarding diabetes was collected, the educational interventions (three times) were done in the form of IEC using pamphlets, posters, and didactic lectures on diabetes. The post-intervention data were collected two weeks (immediate) after the first intervention and three months (long- term) after the last intervention. Results: There were a higher proportion of students with satisfactory level of knowledge of diabetes both at two weeks and three months after the interventions in both the schools, and the results were found to be statistically significant after using Chi square test (p<0.05). Conclusions: The health literacy regarding diabetes had improved significantly after intervention in the form of IEC activities (posters, pamphlets and didactic lectures) when given repeatedly among school‑going adolescents.