Assessment of Older Adult Health Literacy on Diabetes Mellitus in Tertiary Hospitals in Port Hacourt Metropolis, River State Nigeria

The study assessed the older adult health literacy on diabetes mellitus in tertiary hospitals in Port Harcourt metropolis. Four objectives and four research questions guided the study. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population of the study comprised four thousand five hundred and nineteen (4519) diabetic patients drawn from the two tertiary hospitals UPTH and RSUTH Port Harcourt metropolis. The sample for the study consists of two hundred registered older adults living with diabetes mellitus in UPTH and RUSTH through purposive sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was questionnaire. The research questions were analyzed using weighted mean. The results of the study revealed that social media, community education, health talk at the hospital, newspaper, television programmes, centre for diseases control (CDC) and national library of medicine are sources of knowledge of causes of diabetes mellites among older adults. Health literacy lifestyle skills adopted by older adults in management of diabetes mellitus are eating healthy foods, testing blood sugar, taking medication as prescribed, managing stress, regular medical check-up, skipping fad diet and loosing extra weight are literacy lifestyle skills engaged by the older adult diabetic patients. The study recommended that custodian of health information about the health status of diabetic patients should grant access to researchers on the subject matter in other to provide accuracy in their research findings, hospitals should provide enough knowledge on the causes and management of diabetes among older adult diabetic patients. Older adult diabetic patients should try as much as possible to attend to referral hospitals for proper care and medication.