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Abstract
Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between health literacy of obese individuals and their loss of weight following their visit to a dietician.
Methods: Volunteers consisted of obese patients aged between 18-65 years who visited the hospital dietician between January 2018 and March 2018. In this study, we used a questionnaire for the socio-demographic characteristics of volunteers and the Health Literacy Scale European Union (HLS-EU) to measure health literacy level. Weight-loss status of the participants at the end of the first month was assessed.
Results: 321 of the obese individuals participating in our study were females and 71 were males. One third (33.20%) of the obese patients were in the sufficient/perfect HL level group according to General Health Literacy (HL) scores. It was detected that weight-loss in individuals with a perfect health literacy level was significantly higher than those with insufficient and limited health literacy (respectively, p=0.001 and p<0.001).
Conclusions: Patients with high health literacy among those visiting a dietician lose more weight. Physicians can contribute to more efficient performance of patients and help patients to recuperate by directing obese patients with high health literacy to dieticians.