Impact of health literacy and self-care behaviors on health-related quality of life in Iranians with type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional study

Background: Regarding the importance of health literacy as a key factor in self-care, appropriate understanding of health information by patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is fundamental for better management of risk factors, which can also benefit their quality of life. This study aimed to describe the relationship between health literacy (HL), and self-care behaviors with health-related quality of life (HRQL) in patients with T2DM. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was done in Iran in 2019. Patients were recruited randomly from health centers by medical records (n = 192, 55.2 male, mean age 58.12 years). The data collection included demographic form, health literacy questionnaire, diabetes self-care behavior questionnaire, and world health organization�s Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF). Analyses were adjusted for confounders using hierarchical regression analysis. Results: HL as predictor variables explained 47.5 of variance in overall HRQL (p value < 0.001), reading health information was the strongest HL dimension (β = 0.478). Self-care behaviors explained an additional 13.6 of the HRQL variance. In total, 65.5 of the variation in the HRQL is explained by the HL, self-care behavior, and the demographic variables. Conclusion: We found that more almost two-third of the HRQL explained by the HL and self-care behaviors. Given the importance of health literacy and self-care behaviors in the quality of life in patients with T2DM, adoption of health-promoting behaviors and increasing health literacy can be beneficial for promoting quality of life among these patients. © 2020, The Author(s)

The survival rate of hepatocellular carcinoma in asian countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Hepatocellular carcinoma or Liver cancer (LC) is the sixth most common cancer and the fourth cause of death worldwide in 2018. There has not been a comprehensive study on the survival rate of patients with LC in Asia yet. Therefore, the present study was conducted to evaluate the survival rate of patients with LC in Asian countries. The methodology of the present study is based on the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis) statement. The researchers searched five international databases including Medline/PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Web of Knowledge and ProQuest until July 1, 2018. We also searched Google Scholar for detecting grey literature. The Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Form was used to evaluate the quality of selected papers. A total of 1425 titles were retrieved. 63 studies met the inclusion criteria. Based on the random-effect model one-year, three-year and five-year survival rate of LC were 34.8 (95 CI; 30.3-39.3), 19 (95 CI; 18.2-21.8) and 18.1 (95 CI;16.1-20.1) respectively. According to the results of our study, the LC survival rate in Asian countries is relatively lower than in Europe and North America. © 2020, Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors. All rights reserved