More than half of the total number of deaths worldwide in 2008 were due to non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases. Furthermore, three-fifths of health expenditures are due to poor health literacy. The present research aimed to explore the relationships among health literacy, self-control, and healthy lifestyle behaviors, and to reveal the mediating and moderating roles of self-control in the relationship between health literacy and healthy lifestyle behaviors. While the target population consisted of undergraduate students at a state university (N = 2,645), the sample included 1,046 voluntarily selected students. Findings showed that health literacy skills increased self-control skills and healthy lifestyle behaviors. Self-control skills also increase healthy lifestyle behaviors. Additionally, increased health literacy skills increase awareness and self-control, and greater self-control in turn increases healthy lifestyle behaviors, in a domino effect. Healthy lifestyle behaviors may be improved thanks to advanced health literacy and self-control. Bringing awareness of self-control and health literacy to students with non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, respiratory tract disease, and cancer, for which patient participation is critical, can make significant contributions to the treatment process and costs.
Alp et al. (Mon,) studied this question.