Health Literacy, Illness Appraisal and Adherence Among Individuals with Diabetes: Role of Experiential Avoidance

Abstract

The study was intended to explore the mediating role of experiential avoidance in the relationship between health literacy, illness appraisal and adherence among individual with diabetes. Sample included 150 individuals with Type-I diabetes (N=71) and Type-II diabetes (N=79), recruited from different hospital and clinics. Study comprised of four parts, scale translation, try out, pilot study and main study. For health literacy assessment All Aspects of Health Literacy Scale (Chinn & McCarthy, 2013) was administered, for illness appraisal assessment Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (Broadbent et al, 2006) was administered, for adherence assessment General Medication Adherence Scale (Naqvi et al., 2018) was administered, and for experiential avoidance assessment Brief Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire (Gámez et al., 2013) was administered on individuals with diabetes. It was hypothesized a positive relationship of health literacy with adherence, and a negative relationship of adherence with illness appraisal and experiential avoidance. It was also hypothesized that health literacy, illness appraisal and experiential avoidance will predict adherence, and experiential avoidance will mediate the relationship between health literacy, illness appraisal and adherence among individuals with diabetes. Findings revealed that experiential avoidance partially mediated the relationship between health literacy and adherence whereas fully mediated the relationship between illness appraisal and adherence among individuals with diabetes. Study has significant implications in the clinical setting while treating individuals with diabetes, it highlighted the need to improve the patient-physician communication and need of mental health experts to work collaboratively with health care providers in order to identify the psychological needs of individuals living with diabetes. The present study results will help in developing the health care policy for the psychological consultancy of individuals with diabetes.