Health Literacy and Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use among Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients in the Northeast of Thailand.

Background Globally, type 2 Diabetes Mellitus is in increasing trend. With its chronic and incurable natures, type 2 diabetes patients have been increasingly seeking various regiments to relive their sufferings. However, magnitude and influencing factors are still unclear. Objective To identify prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine among type 2 diabetes patients and the association between health literacy and its use in the Northeast region of Thailand. Method This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the prevalence of Complementary and Alternative Medicine use and the roles of health literacy on its use among type 2 diabetes patients in the Northeast Region of Thailand. A total of 1,012 type 2 diabetes mellitus patients were systematic randomly selected to response to a structured questionnaire interview. The generalized linear mixed model was applied to identify factors associated with it. Result There were 30.89% (95% CI: 28.25 to 33.67) of type 2 diabetes patients used complementary and alternative medicine. Majority of these patients (52.23%, 95% CI: 49.30 to 55.15) had sufficient level of health literacy related to complementary and alternative medicine. Type 2 diabetes patients who had sufficient to excellent levels of health literacy had 2.64 times higher Odds of complementary and alternative medicine use (95% CI: 1.91 to 3.65) when compared with those who had inadequate to problematic levels of health literacy. Others covariates that were also associated with complementary and alternative medicine use were had adequate income (ORadj. = 2.52; 95% CI: 1.81 to 3.52), had HbA1C < 7 (OR Adj. = 2.50; 95%CI: 1.86 to 3.37) and had comorbidity (OR Adj. = 2.07; 95%CI: 1.57 to 2.73). Conclusion About thirty percent of type 2 diabetes patients used complementary and alternative medicine. Health literacy, economic status, comorbidity and diabetic control had strong influence on complementary and alternative medicine use.