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Relationship between Health Literacy, Health-Related Behaviors and Health Status: A Survey of Elderly Chinese

Background: Despite the large volume of research dedicated to health-related behavior change, chronic disease costs continue to rise, thus creating a major public health burden. Health literacy, the ability to seek, understand, and utilize health information, has been identified as an important fact...

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Autores principales: Liu, Yong-Bing, Liu, Liu, Li, Yan-Fei, Chen, Yan-Li
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4555308/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26295246
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120809714
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author Liu, Yong-Bing
Liu, Liu
Li, Yan-Fei
Chen, Yan-Li
author_facet Liu, Yong-Bing
Liu, Liu
Li, Yan-Fei
Chen, Yan-Li
author_sort Liu, Yong-Bing
collection PubMed
description Background: Despite the large volume of research dedicated to health-related behavior change, chronic disease costs continue to rise, thus creating a major public health burden. Health literacy, the ability to seek, understand, and utilize health information, has been identified as an important factor in the course of chronic conditions. Little research has been conducted on the relationship between health literacy and health-related behaviors and health status in elderly Chinese. The aim of this study was to elucidate the relationship between health literacy and health-related behaviors and health status in China. Methods: The subjects enrolled in this study were selected based on a stratified cluster random sampling design. Information involving >4500 older adults in 44 pension institutions in Urumqi, Changji, Karamay, and Shihezi of Xinjiang between September 2011 and June 2012 was collected. The Chinese Citizen Health Literacy Questionnaire (China Health Education Centre, 2008) and a Scale of the General Status were administered and the information was obtained through face-to-face inquiries by investigators. A total of 1452 respondents met the inclusion criteria. A total of 1452 questionnaires were issued and the valid response rate was 96.14% (1396 of 1452). Factors affecting health literacy and the relationship to health literacy were identified by one-way ANOVA and a multiple linear regression model. Results: The average health literacy level of the elderly in nursing homes was relatively low (71.74 ± 28.35 points). There were significant differences in the health literacy score among the factors of age, gender, race, education level, household income, marital conditions, and former occupation (p < 0.001). The health literacy score was significantly associated with smoking, drinking, physical exercise, and health examination (p < 0.001). The elderly with higher health literacy scores were significantly less likely to have risky behaviors (smoking, regular drinking, and lack of physical exercise), and in turn significantly more likely to undergo health examinations regularly, report good self-rated health, and significantly more likely to access sufficient health information from multiple sources (p < 0.001). No differences were noted between the health literacy score and BMI (p > 0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that the independent influencing factors of health literacy included education level, race, former occupation, household income, age, physical exercise, health examination, smoking, and health information access (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Health literacy was significantly associated with health-related behaviors in elderly Chinese. Further longitudinal studies are needed to help confirm that improving health literacy in the elderly may be effective in changing health-related behaviors. To reduce risky habits, educational interventions to improve health literacy should be simultaneously conducted in health promotion work.
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spelling pubmed-45553082015-09-01 Relationship between Health Literacy, Health-Related Behaviors and Health Status: A Survey of Elderly Chinese Liu, Yong-Bing Liu, Liu Li, Yan-Fei Chen, Yan-Li Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: Despite the large volume of research dedicated to health-related behavior change, chronic disease costs continue to rise, thus creating a major public health burden. Health literacy, the ability to seek, understand, and utilize health information, has been identified as an important factor in the course of chronic conditions. Little research has been conducted on the relationship between health literacy and health-related behaviors and health status in elderly Chinese. The aim of this study was to elucidate the relationship between health literacy and health-related behaviors and health status in China. Methods: The subjects enrolled in this study were selected based on a stratified cluster random sampling design. Information involving >4500 older adults in 44 pension institutions in Urumqi, Changji, Karamay, and Shihezi of Xinjiang between September 2011 and June 2012 was collected. The Chinese Citizen Health Literacy Questionnaire (China Health Education Centre, 2008) and a Scale of the General Status were administered and the information was obtained through face-to-face inquiries by investigators. A total of 1452 respondents met the inclusion criteria. A total of 1452 questionnaires were issued and the valid response rate was 96.14% (1396 of 1452). Factors affecting health literacy and the relationship to health literacy were identified by one-way ANOVA and a multiple linear regression model. Results: The average health literacy level of the elderly in nursing homes was relatively low (71.74 ± 28.35 points). There were significant differences in the health literacy score among the factors of age, gender, race, education level, household income, marital conditions, and former occupation (p < 0.001). The health literacy score was significantly associated with smoking, drinking, physical exercise, and health examination (p < 0.001). The elderly with higher health literacy scores were significantly less likely to have risky behaviors (smoking, regular drinking, and lack of physical exercise), and in turn significantly more likely to undergo health examinations regularly, report good self-rated health, and significantly more likely to access sufficient health information from multiple sources (p < 0.001). No differences were noted between the health literacy score and BMI (p > 0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that the independent influencing factors of health literacy included education level, race, former occupation, household income, age, physical exercise, health examination, smoking, and health information access (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Health literacy was significantly associated with health-related behaviors in elderly Chinese. Further longitudinal studies are needed to help confirm that improving health literacy in the elderly may be effective in changing health-related behaviors. To reduce risky habits, educational interventions to improve health literacy should be simultaneously conducted in health promotion work. MDPI 2015-08-18 2015-08 /pmc/articles/PMC4555308/ /pubmed/26295246 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120809714 Text en © 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Liu, Yong-Bing
Liu, Liu
Li, Yan-Fei
Chen, Yan-Li
Relationship between Health Literacy, Health-Related Behaviors and Health Status: A Survey of Elderly Chinese
title Relationship between Health Literacy, Health-Related Behaviors and Health Status: A Survey of Elderly Chinese
title_full Relationship between Health Literacy, Health-Related Behaviors and Health Status: A Survey of Elderly Chinese
title_fullStr Relationship between Health Literacy, Health-Related Behaviors and Health Status: A Survey of Elderly Chinese
title_full_unstemmed Relationship between Health Literacy, Health-Related Behaviors and Health Status: A Survey of Elderly Chinese
title_short Relationship between Health Literacy, Health-Related Behaviors and Health Status: A Survey of Elderly Chinese
title_sort relationship between health literacy, health-related behaviors and health status: a survey of elderly chinese
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4555308/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26295246
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120809714
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