Health Literacy and Knowledge of Chronic Diseases in Nepal

Abstract

Very little is known about health literacy in Nepal. We conducted a study to learn how much people in Nepal with hypertension, diabetes, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease knew about their condition and sought to check its association with health literacy. We found that more than one-half of the participants did not have adequate health literacy levels. Participants who were older, female, uneducated, retired from work, or poor had lower levels of health literacy. We also found that those with high levels of health literacy had better knowledge of their disease. Therefore, we recommend that in Nepal health literacy should be measured for each patient and support regarding management of his or her condition should be provided if necessary.