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Health literacy and health seeking behavior among older men in a middle-income nation
Health literacy is a measure of the patient’s ability to read, comprehend and act on medical instructions. This research article examines health literacy and health-seeking behaviors among elderly men in Jamaica, in order to inform health policy. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. A 133-it...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Dove Medical Press
2010
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3417896/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22915951 |
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author | Bourne, Paul A Morris, Chloe Charles, Christopher AD Eldemire-Shearer, Denise Kerr-Campbell, Maureen D Crawford, Tazhmoye V |
author_facet | Bourne, Paul A Morris, Chloe Charles, Christopher AD Eldemire-Shearer, Denise Kerr-Campbell, Maureen D Crawford, Tazhmoye V |
author_sort | Bourne, Paul A |
collection | PubMed |
description | Health literacy is a measure of the patient’s ability to read, comprehend and act on medical instructions. This research article examines health literacy and health-seeking behaviors among elderly men in Jamaica, in order to inform health policy. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. A 133-item questionnaire was administered to a random sample of 2,000 men, 55 years and older, in St Catherine, Jamaica. In this study, 56.9% of urban and 44.5% of rural residents were health literate. Only 34.0% of participants purchased medications prescribed by the medical doctor and 19.8% were currently smoking. Despite the reported good self-related health status (74.4%) and high cognitive functionality (94.1%) of the older men, only 7.9% sought medical care outside of experiencing illnesses. Thirty-seven percent of rural participants sought medical care when they were ill compared with 31.9% of their urban counterparts. Thirty-four percent of the participants took the medication as prescribed by the medical doctor; 43% self-reported being diagnosed with cancers such as prostate and colorectal in the last 6 months, 9.6% with hypertension, 5.3% with heart disease, 5.3% with benign prostatic hyperplasia, 5.3% with diabetes mellitus, and 3.8% with kidney/bladder problems. Approximately 14% and 24% of the participants indicated that they were unaware of the signs and symptoms of hypertension and diabetes mellitus, respectively. The elderly men displayed low health literacy and poor health-seeking behavior. These findings can be used to guide the formulation of health policies and intervention programs for elderly men in Jamaica. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3417896 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2010 |
publisher | Dove Medical Press |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-34178962012-08-22 Health literacy and health seeking behavior among older men in a middle-income nation Bourne, Paul A Morris, Chloe Charles, Christopher AD Eldemire-Shearer, Denise Kerr-Campbell, Maureen D Crawford, Tazhmoye V Patient Relat Outcome Meas Original Research Health literacy is a measure of the patient’s ability to read, comprehend and act on medical instructions. This research article examines health literacy and health-seeking behaviors among elderly men in Jamaica, in order to inform health policy. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. A 133-item questionnaire was administered to a random sample of 2,000 men, 55 years and older, in St Catherine, Jamaica. In this study, 56.9% of urban and 44.5% of rural residents were health literate. Only 34.0% of participants purchased medications prescribed by the medical doctor and 19.8% were currently smoking. Despite the reported good self-related health status (74.4%) and high cognitive functionality (94.1%) of the older men, only 7.9% sought medical care outside of experiencing illnesses. Thirty-seven percent of rural participants sought medical care when they were ill compared with 31.9% of their urban counterparts. Thirty-four percent of the participants took the medication as prescribed by the medical doctor; 43% self-reported being diagnosed with cancers such as prostate and colorectal in the last 6 months, 9.6% with hypertension, 5.3% with heart disease, 5.3% with benign prostatic hyperplasia, 5.3% with diabetes mellitus, and 3.8% with kidney/bladder problems. Approximately 14% and 24% of the participants indicated that they were unaware of the signs and symptoms of hypertension and diabetes mellitus, respectively. The elderly men displayed low health literacy and poor health-seeking behavior. These findings can be used to guide the formulation of health policies and intervention programs for elderly men in Jamaica. Dove Medical Press 2010-05-26 /pmc/articles/PMC3417896/ /pubmed/22915951 Text en © 2010 Bourne et al, publisher and licensee Dove Medical Press Ltd. This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Original Research Bourne, Paul A Morris, Chloe Charles, Christopher AD Eldemire-Shearer, Denise Kerr-Campbell, Maureen D Crawford, Tazhmoye V Health literacy and health seeking behavior among older men in a middle-income nation |
title | Health literacy and health seeking behavior among older men in a middle-income nation |
title_full | Health literacy and health seeking behavior among older men in a middle-income nation |
title_fullStr | Health literacy and health seeking behavior among older men in a middle-income nation |
title_full_unstemmed | Health literacy and health seeking behavior among older men in a middle-income nation |
title_short | Health literacy and health seeking behavior among older men in a middle-income nation |
title_sort | health literacy and health seeking behavior among older men in a middle-income nation |
topic | Original Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3417896/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22915951 |
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