Background: Health literacy encompasses an individual capacity to make health decision. Low health literacy has been linked to poorer diabetes outcome as health problem in Thailand.

Objective: To evaluate health literacy levels and determine associated factors among diabetics in suburban Bangkok, Thailand.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out amongst type 2 diabetics (T2DM) followed up at a public primary healthcare centre in Sai Mai, Bangkok. Simple random sampling was used to obtain an adequate sample as 312 T2DM who were administered with a locally-adapted questionnaire to determine three skill domains of health literacy, which are functional, interactive, and critical. One-way ANOVA, t-tests were used to assess the relationship of various associated factors with the three domains of health literacy. Analytical was performed using SPSS 16.

Results: Of the 312 patients sampled, almost two-thirds had moderate health literacy levels across functional, interactive, and critical skills domains. Despite these health literacy levels, 61.5% of the samples had poor glycemic control. Education was the only factor significantly associated with health literacy across all three skill domains.

Conclusion: In Thai diabetics, the study showed moderate levels of health literacy. Besides education, other factors may be affecting such as health numeracy. Targeted future research may pinpoint a strategy that directly impact diabetes disease outcomes.

Keywords: Health literacy, Health education, Health promotion, Diabetes mellitus, Thailand

Received 2 Mar 2017 | Revised 22 May 2017 | Accepted 27 May 2017