The Link Between Health Literacy and Three Conditions of Metabolic Syndrome: Obesity, Diabetes and Hypertension

Figures & data

Figure 1 Selection of study subjects *Socio Economic Status. **Health Literacy Score.

Table 1 Subjects Characteristics (N = 1349)

	%	n
Age*
18–29	16.1	217
30–39	18.3	247
40–49	26.0	350
50–60	39.7	535
Gender
Male	46.5	627
Female	53.5	722
Education
Low	18.4	248
Medium	48.4	653
High	33.2	447
Health literacy
Inadequate	10.7	144
Problematic	33.5	452
Sufficient	55.8	753

Note: *Mean (SD) 43.5 years (12.0).

Table 2 Prevalence of Obesity, Diabetes and Hypertension in Different HL Groups (N = 1349)

Health Literacy Level	Inadequate	Problematic	Sufficient	P
	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)
Subjects	144 (10.7)	452 (33.5)	753 (55.8)
Abdominal obesity				0.213
Yes, n=231 (17.1%)	32 (22.2)	77 (17.0)	122 (16.2)
No, n=1118 (82.9%)	112 (77.8)	375 (83.0)	631 (83.8)
Type 2 diabetes				0.736
Yes, n=55 (4.1%)	7 (4.9)	20 (4.4)	28 (3.7)
No, n=1294 (95.9%)	137 (95.1)	432 (95.6)	725 (96.3)
Hypertension				<0.001*
Yes, n=372 (27.6%)	48 (33.3)	152 (33.6)	172 (22.8)
No, n=977 (72.4%)	96 (66.7)	300 (66.4)	581 (77.2)

Note: *Significant difference.

Abbreviation: HL, Health literacy.

Table 3 Reported Number of CMS* by Age, Gender, Education and HL (N = 1349)

Number of CMS	0 of 3	1 of 3	2 of 3	3 of 3**
	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)
Subjects	862 (63.9)	346 (25.7)	111 (8.2)	30 (2.2)
Age (years)
18–29	173 (79.7)	39 (18.0)	5 (2.3)	0 (0.0)
30–39	178 (72.1)	59 (23.9)	8 (3.2)	2 (0.8)
40–49	226 (64.6)	85 (24.3)	33 (9.4)	6 (1.7)
50–60	285 (53.3)	163 (30.5)	65 (12.2)	22 (4.1)
Gender
Male	379 (60.5)	183 (29.2)	48 (7.7)	17 (2.7)
Female	483 (66.9)	163 (22.6)	63 (8.7)	13 (1.8)
Education
Low	127 (51.2)	80 (32.3)	29 (11.7)	12 (4.8)
Medium	404 (61.9)	177 (27.1)	59 (9.0)	13 (2.0)
High	331 (74.1)	88 (19.7)	23 (5.2)	5 (1.1)
Health Literacy
Inadequate	77 (53.5)	50 (34.7)	14 (9.7)	3 (2.1)
Problematic	269 (59.5)	129 (28.5)	42 (9.3)	12 (2.7)
Sufficient	516 (68.5)	167 (22.2)	55 (7.3)	15 (2.0)

Notes: *Conditions of metabolic syndrome: obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension. **Subject with metabolic syndrome.

Table 4 Potential Influencing Variables of the Number of CMS* (N = 1349)

Ordered Logistic Regression	OR	ß	95% Conf. Interval		P
Age (one life year difference)	1.05	0.046	0.036	0.056	<0.001
Gender: female vs male	0.73	−0.318	−0.545	−0.091	0.006
Education: medium vs high	1.89	0.638	0.371	0.906	<0.001
Education: low vs high	2.89	1.061	0.733	1.390	<0.001
HL: problematic vs sufficient	1.49	0.399	0.153	0.645	0.001
HL: inadequate vs sufficient	1.62	0.481	0.124	0.839	0.008

Notes: *Conditions of metabolic syndrome: 0 to 3 of obesity, type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

Abbreviations: OR, odds ratio; HL, health literacy; vs, versus.

Figure 2 Comparison of the number of CMS* between educational levels**. *Conditions of metabolic syndrome: obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes. **Categorized according to the CASMIN criteria.

Figure 3 Comparison of the number of CMS* between HL** levels. *Conditions of metabolic syndrome: obesity, hypertension, type 2 Diabetes. **Health literacy, categorized according to the European Health Literacy Questionnaire 16.