**1. Introduction**

Health literacy regarding medications instructions is important to people with cardiovascular diseases. Understanding medication instructions is of vital importance to people living with cardiovascular diseases for proper disease management. Taking medication properly is one of the critical aspects in the control of diabetes mellitus. Many people can read medication instructions simply because they are literate; however, patients fail to interpret the medication instructions because they are health illiterate. Even though basic general literacy plays a role in understanding phenomena in general, health literacy regarding medications instructions could be achieved even when an individual do not have general literacy. So, patients with low health literacy have shown to suffer from low medication knowledge and understanding [1]. Health literacy regarding medication instructions basically means 'an understanding of the actual meaning of the instructions on how medication should

be consumed'. This chapter will be based mainly on the study conducted among diabetes mellitus patients on treatment at selected rural area in Capricorn District, Limpopo province, South Africa.

The study employed a convergent parallel mixed method research design. The total population was 144 patients; 18 participated in the semi-structured interviews for qualitative study and 137 respondents for the quantitative study. The major findings of the study were: misconceptions and misunderstanding, unclear instructions, poor explanation by medication dispensers, non-compliance, negligence, experiencing complications, lack of knowledge and need assistance. The study also outlined the demographic data of the participants as factors influencing adherence and more insight will be shared in the chapter.
