Health literacy is how well the patients are able to attain, deal with, and understand basic health information. This is particularly important when it comes to comprehending prescribed medication instructions. To improve the communication strategies for health-care professionals during patient counseling, our study aimed to assess the influence of health literacy and medication adherence in older patients. The objectives of the study were to evaluate associations that occur between the level of health literacy and medication adherence. This study used a convenience sampling method of females (older than 60 years) attending the diabetic clinic in two hospital settings ( N = 524). All study participants filled three validated questionnaires: these were the Literacy Assessment for Diabetes, the Diabetes Numeracy Test, and a modified Brief Adherence Rating Scale. To assess the spectrum of health literacy differences, we used χ2 analysis and linear regression analysis. Individuals with adequate health literacy were more likely to remember to take their medications compared with those with inadequate health literacy, χ2(4) = 11.6, p = .04. Adequate literacy level study participants were more likely to not change the dose of their medications without medical advice (12.3%) compared with those individuals with inadequate health literacy (2.8%), χ2(4) = 11.13, p = .03. The results in our study suggest that health-care professionals should focus on appropriate communication attuned to the assessment of health literacy levels particularly in older female patients when discussing medication instructions.

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the attitude and hesitancy towards vaccine against COVID-19 in a Pakistani Population. Materials and Methods: A mix-method, prospective study was conducted and adults (aged ≥18 years) residing in Pakistan were invited to participate..The questionnaire was prepared, hosted in Google Forms and circulated through electronic platforms and was also available to be done in in-person. Data was compiled from 15 th September to 30 th November 2020. Results: The response rate was 80%. A total of 1003 participants were included in the final analysis. Of them, 75% completed survey questionnaire online, while remaining 25% responded in-person. The mean age of the participants was 29.62±10.47 years. The majority of participants were females; 60.9% (n=611). 57.02% (n=572) of the participants were employed at the time of survey. Overall, 70.68% (n=709) of the participants had previous experience of vaccines such as the flu vaccine Only 4.9% (n=49) participants thought that they will be seriously ill from COVID-19 within six months and 39% (n=392) participants were confident that they will get COVID-19. A total of 71.29% of the participants reported they would consider getting vaccinated once available. There was statistical association between gender and getting vaccinated (P<0.001). Conclusion: This study demonstrated that majority of the participants showed positive attitude towards considering COVID-19 vaccine. However awareness with informed knowledge of efficacy, possible adverse effects and cost would be of added great value to increase the real response of Pakistani population towards COVID-19 vaccination.

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Clinical trial registration: This clinical trial has been prospectively registered on Clinical Trial Registry India (CTRI) with the number CTRI/2021/09/036539.