# Health Literacy and Self‐Care Among Patients Living With Chronic Kidney Disease in a Low‐Resource Setting

## TL;DR

This study shows that better health literacy improves self-care among chronic kidney disease patients in low-resource areas.

## Contribution

It demonstrates a novel link between health literacy and self-care in CKD patients within a low-income setting.

## Key findings

- Higher health literacy is significantly associated with better self-care practices.
- Employment status also positively influences self-care behaviors.
- Most participants were at stage 5 of CKD with low insurance coverage and employment rates.

## Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine whether health literacy predicts self‐careamong patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) in a low‐resource setting.

The study was a cross‐sectional study conducted among 196 patients with CKD attending an urban facility in Kampala, Uganda.

Data were collected using the adopted health literacy scale (HLS‐14 tool) and CKD self‐care questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and linear regression were used in the data analyses. The statistical significance level was set at p < 0.05.

The mean age of the participants was 47.2 (13.3) years. Most participants were male (60%), and about 72% were at stage 5 of CKD. Only 6% had health insurance whereas 20% were employed. The participants had a mean self‐care score of 65.39 (SD ±7.1) and a mean score of health literacy of 49.48 (SD ±11.2). Based on the bivariate analysis, self‐care was associated with sex (p = 0.005), employment status (p = 0.003) and health literacy (p = 0.005). Results from the multivariable regression model show that self‐care has a statistically significant positive association with health literacy (β = 0.167, t = 3.65, p ≤ 0.001) and employment (β = 4.45, t = 3.43, p ≤ 0.001) while controlling for other variables.

Our findings suggest that higher levels of health literacy are associated with improved self‐care practices which are crucial for managing CKD efficiently. Health education should be provided as early as possible. This work can serve as a basis for future related studies in low‐income settings.