Health Literacy predicts incident foot ulcers after 4 years - the SHELLED cohort study.

ABSTRACT:

Aims/hypothesis

To determine whether health literacy is associated with an index diabetes-related foot ulcer (DFU).

Methods

The SHELLED Study is a 4-year prospective study of people with diabetes aged over 40 with no history of DFU. The primary outcome was development of a first foot ulcer. Health Literacy was measured using the short form Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (s-TOFHLA) and nine domains of the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ).

Results

Of 222 participants, 191 (86.0%) completed the study, of whom 13 (5.9%) developed an incident ulcer. In multivariable models, every unit increase in S-TOFHLA was associated with a reduced odds of foot ulcer development by 6% (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.88 to 0.99). Better scores on two HLQ domains reduced the odds of f

SUBMITTER: Chen P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10373326 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature