Determining the Health Literacy and Self-Management Status of Individuals with Chronic Diseases

Abstract

Aim: This study aimed to determine the health literacy and self-management levels of adults with chronic diseases and to examine the independent contribution of health literacy to self-management. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 251 adults with chronic diseases who were recruited in Türkiye using snowball sampling. Data were collected through an online survey using a Patient Information Form, the Chronic Disease Self-Management Scale, and the 14-item Health Literacy Scale. Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis tests were used for group comparisons, and Spearman’s rank correlation was used to examine relationships between continuous variables. A two-step hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to determine the independent contribution of health literacy to self-management after controlling for age, education level, employment status, disease duration, and additional chronic disease category. Results: The mean Chronic Disease Self-Management Scale score was 56.19±8.16, and the mean Health Literacy Scale score was 44.59±9.82. Health literacy was weakly and positively correlated with self-management. After controlling for the selected sociodemographic and clinical variables, health literacy remained a statistically significant but weak positive independent predictor of self-management. Health literacy explained an additional 1.7% of the variance, increasing the total explained variance of the final model to 9.9%. Conclusion: Health literacy and self-management were observed at moderate levels. Health literacy was independently associated with self-management in the present study sample; however, its unique explanatory contribution was small. These findings suggest that health literacy is only one component of the multifactorial determinants of chronic disease self-management and that interventions focusing solely on health literacy may have limited effects. Broader approaches addressing psychosocial, interpersonal, and clinical determinants should be considered.