Exploring the relationship between health knowledge, health literacy, self-care, self-efficacy, and glycemic control among adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Table 4 Statistical data of key variables

	Measurement or questionnaire	Cronbach’s α	mean ± SD (range)	Number (%) at specific threshold1	Association with sociodemographic data, mean ± SD
Diabetes knowledge (n = 99)	MDKT-14	0.564	7.3 ± 2.5 (1-13)	Adequate knowledge: 59 (59.6)	Higher MDKT score among patients with education at form 5 or above: 8.3 (2.4) vs 6.5 (2.4), P < 0.001
Health literacy (n = 96)	HLS-M-Q18	0.904	True score: 54.9 ± 9.7 (26.0-71.0); Transformed score: 38.1 ± 6.7 (18.1-49.3)	Sufficient/excellent health literacy: 77 (80.2)	Lower HLS score among Chinese patients compared with other ethnic groups: 51.5 (10.5) vs 56.4 (8.9), P = 0.021
Self-efficacy (n = 100)	DMSES-15	0.878	110.6 ± 26.0 (30-150)	Not applicable	No association with sociodemographic data
Self-care (n = 98)	SDSCA-11	0.601	30.7 ± 13.3 (7-64)	Not applicable	Higher SDSCA score among patients with education at form 5 or above: 33.6 (14.3) vs 28.1 (11.4), P = 0.045
Medication adherence (n = 100)	MyMAAT-12	0.909	50.8 ± 9.3 (15-60)	Adherent: 51 (51.0)	MyMAAT score higher in those aged ≥ 60 vs those aged < 60: 52.6 (8.6) vs 48.5 (9.8), P = 0.027

¹See Table 1. MDKT-14: Michigan Diabetes Knowledge Test-14; HLS-M-Q18: Malaysian version of Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire 18; DMSES-15: Diabetes Management Self Efficacy scale-15; SDSCA-11: Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities-11; MyMAAT-12: Malaysia Medication Adherence Assessment Tool-12; SD: Standard deviation.