Health Literacy and Drug Adherence among Diabetes Patients in Ebonyi State: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Background Health literacy is a phenomenon that empowers patients to navigate the healthcare system, understand medical instructions, and recognize the significance of continuous medication adherence. Purpose The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between health literacy and drug adherence among diabetes patients in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Methods This cross-sectional study was carried out on 298 diabetes patients. The study used a researchers-developed 20-item validated Health Literacy and Drug Adherence Questionnaire (HLDAQ). Thirty diabetes patients attending routine out-patient clinic in three government health facilities in Enugu State, Nigeria responded to the research tool for data quality control. The data yielded high Cronbach alpha (Health Literacy Practices α = 0.89; Drug Adherence α = 0.76) reliability coefficients. Spearman Brown correlation coefficient, mean scores, ANOVA, t-test and stepwise multiple regression analysis were used for analysis. Analysis was run with IBM SPSS version 25.0 for windows. Results Overall health literacy (2.60 ± 0.91) indicated that the respondents had a high health literacy level. However, overall drug adherence (2.09 ± 0.49) was low. Differences observed on health literacy were significant in relation age (p = 0.000), sex (p = 0.003), educational level (p = 0.000), and religion (p = 0.000). Similar trend was observed on drug adherence except in sex (p = 0.685). The relationship between health literacy and drug adherence was significantly positive (r = 0.570, p < 0.001). Conclusion The study concluded that the health literacy among the diabetes patients was high, but had low drug adherence. Age, sex, educational level and religion predicted health literacy and drug adherence among the diabetes patients. However, sex was not capable of predicting drug adherence. Healthcare providers should consider addressing complexity of regimen, personal beliefs and attitudes, lifestyle and environmental and psychological factors when developing treatment plans for diabetes patients with higher health literacy.