Pharmacotherapy literacy level and predictors of low literacy among diabetes mellitus type 2 patients in Serbia

BACKGROUND: Pharmacotherapy literacy (PTHL) is a specific ability to safely access, appraise and understand the available information concerning medication and to calculate and act accordingly. The concept of PTHL is mostly unknown for the majority of diabetes mellitus type 2 (DMT2) patients in Serbia. With diabetes being one of the major public health problems in Serbia with a prevalence of 9.1%, this two-study research aims at constructing performance-based instrument and estimating the prevalence of PTHL levels and identification of predictors of low PTHL scores in patients with DMT2. METHODS: Multistage study was performed to adapt the existing performance–based instrument (PTHL-SR) into specific questionnaire for DMT2 population (PTHL-DM instrument). PTHL levels were assessed through cross-sectional study categorising patients into groups of low, medium, and high PTHL levels. We considered 19 predictors for low PTHL scores, from sociodemographic characteristics, health behaviours and health characteristics, access to health-related information and empowerment-related indicators. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to determine independent predictors of low PTHL. RESULTS: The final 15-item PTHL-DM instrument proved to have satisfactory reliability (KR20 = 0.475) and internal reliability [ICC for the whole instrument was 0.97 with 95% confidence intervals (0.95–0.99)]. Positive correlation (rho = 0.69) between PTHL-DM score (15 questions) and the total PTHL-SR score (14 questions) was also observed. It was demonstrated that the majority of 350 patients had low PTHL (62%), and only 5% high PTHL level. Mean score on PTHL-DM was 7.8 ± 2.3. Probability of low PTHL increased among smokers, patients with low interest in health and those who estimated their health as bad. Patients who used pharmacists as sourse of information were less likely to be pharmacotherapy illiterate. Combined therapy with insulin and Oral Hypoglycemic Agents was associated with higher PTHL. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that specific PTHL-DM tool is objective, valid, and reliable. It was found that low level of PTHL prevailed among DMT2 patients. Medication literacy is influenced by age, residence, education, and family status. Patients with better health literacy also reported better health behaviours. Different patient empowerment programs and approaches aimed at raising PTHL would be essential to improve self-management and control of this widespread chronic disease in Serbia. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-023-16639-y.