Aims: Diabetes requires complex self-management. Due to this complexity, social disparities exist in the self-management of type 1 diabetes. Various pathways to describe associations between socio-economic factors and health outcomes have been suggested. We sought to elucidate the potential of health literacy and social support to reduce social disparities in diabetes self-management.
Methods: Questionnaire responses were linked to data from electronic medical records, yielding a study population of 1186 people with type 1 diabetes. Mediation analyses using adjusted linear regressions were used to establish pathways between self-reported educational attainment, social support, functional health literacy and clinically obtained measures of glycaemic control.
Results: We found evidence of an association between education and glycated haemoglobin, partially mediated by functional health literacy and social support. However, the direct association between social support and glycaemic control was not statistically significant.
Conclusions: Whilst both functional health literacy and social support play a role in glycaemic control, our findings did not explain the main impact of social disparities on glycaemic control. Interventions to reduce disparities in glycaemic control related to educational attainment should focus beyond functional health literacy and social support.
Keywords: Health literacy; mediation analysis; social determinants; social support; type 1 diabetes.