Analysis of the health literacy level and its related factors in the elderly / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To understand health literacy levels in elderly people aged 60 years and above in Hunan, and explore factors related to health literacy.Methods Hunan residents aged 60 years and above were randomly recruited by the multistage stratified cluster sampling method.A total of 611 elderly people from 13 counties of Hunan were included in the study, which was conducted through questionnaires.Results The median health literacy score for elderly people aged 60 years and above was 51.00 (4-90), and it was lower than that for people under 60 years old, which was 56.00.Single factor analysis found that education level, occupation, number of family members, and household income each had an influence on health literacy scores (H=59.526, 20.609, 17.214, and 50.749, respectively;P=0.000, 0.002, 0.001 and 0.000, respectively).The number of people with basic health literacy accounted for 10.6％ (65/611) of the total.Multiple logistic regression analysis found that chronic disease was a factor affecting basic health literacy.Compared with elderly people without chronic diseases, a higher percentage of people with basic health literacy was among elderly people with chronic diseases (OR =1.870, 95％ CI 1.037-3.373).Conclusions The health literacy level is lower in elderly people aged 60 years and above than those under 60 years old in Hunan.Only 10.6％ (65/611) of them show basic health literacy.Education level, occupation, number of family members, and household income are the factors related to health literacy.Health education about healthy lifestyle and behavior as well as chronic disease prevention and control should be increased in order to improve the health literacy level in elderly people.