Development of health literacy assessment tool for 9-10 Years old children in Thailand.

Objectives: This study developed psychometric evaluation of an instrument for measuring health literacy among children in Thailand. Study design: Development of Health Literacy Assessment Tool for 9-10 Years Old Children in Thailand involved item development. The first step was reviewing literature to pilot-test and generate an item pool. Nine expertise with different disciplines were approached to assess the initial questionnaire. For field-testing, 1650 students with same age group were randomly selected to complete the questionnaire. The psychometric properties of the developed instrument were assessed by an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Results: A total of 50-items were included in exploratory factor analysis indicating 4-dimension solution that jointly explained 36.05% of the variance observed. Confirmatory factory analysis also indicated a good fit of the data for the four-latent structure: access to information (9-items), understanding the information (6-items), appraisal (8-items), and apply the information (9-items) (Chi-square: χ2 = 1530.76), (Goodness-of-Fit Index: GFI = 0.937), (Adjust GFI: AGFI = 0.927), (Standardized root mean-square residual: SRMR = 0.025); (Root mean-square error of Approximation: RMSEA = 0.040), (Comparative-fit-Index: CFI = 0.903) and (Normed-fit-index: NFI = 0.910). Additional analysis for internal consistency observed satisfactory results with overall Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.902. The Item-Total Correlation (ITC) was 0.300 (range:0.319 to 0.518) and high validation with value of CVI of 0.87. Conclusions: Health Literacy Assessment Tool for 9-10 Years Old children (31-item) showed psychometric properties, high validityy and was reliable. Therefore, it is considered as an effective tool to measure the Health Literacy for 9-10 years old children in Thailand.

Health Literacy and COVID-19 Vaccination among Cancer Patients in Northeastern Thailand: A Cross-Sectional Study.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine uptake among patients with cancer in northeastern Thailand. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in northeastern Thailand between December 29th, 2022 and January 31st, 2023. A community-based, multistage sampling method was used to select patients with any medically diagnosed cancer. An interview form was developed to assess patient sociodemographic factors, health literacy, and COVID-19 vaccination status. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to identify the factors associated with COVID-19 vaccination status. RESULTS: Of the 449 participants, 368 (81.96%) had received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. The multivariable analysis revealed that factors associated with COVID-19 vaccination among cancer patients included: 1) health literacy (excellent: adjusted odd ratio (ORAdj) = 7.23; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.11-24.71, p = 0.002); sufficient: ORAdj = 6.03; 95% CI: 2.00-18.24, p = 0.001); problematic: ORAdj = 3.88; 95% CI:1.37-11.00, p = 0.011); 2) marital status (ORAdj = 2.90; 95% CI: 1.37-6.14, p = 0.005); 3) cancer treatment at a general hospital (ORAdj = 2.50; 95% CI: 1.25-5.00, p = 0.010); and 4) history of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection (ORAdj = 2.37; 95% CI:1.19-4.71, p = 0.014). CONCLUSIONS: The strongest predictor of receiving COVID-19 vaccines was health literacy, which enhances healthcare provider awareness of communicable disease prevention and control for patients with cancer as well as counselling and educating to improve their health literacy. It could influent a higher rate of vaccine uptake among patients with cancer.

Sociocultural, health knowledge, and health literacy among children ages 9-10 years in Thailand.

BACKGROUND: Health literacy (HL) enables a person to make good decisions regarding health care, disease prevention, and health promotion to maintain and improve health. In Thailand, most existing studies focus on adults' HL rather than children. This research aimed to determine the influence of sociocultural and health knowledge on HL among children ages 9-10 years in Thailand. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1650 children aged 9-10 years. The respondents were recruited using multistage random sampling from 39 primary schools of 13 provinces in all four regions of Thailand. A self-administered structured questionnaire was used to collect the required data. The multilevel analysis was used to determine the association between sociocultural, health knowledge, and HL while controlling the effects of covariates. The result was presented as adjusted odd ratios and its 95% confidence interval (CI). RESULTS: Of the total 1650 respondents, 86.24% (95% CI: 84.49%-87.82%) had adequate and excellent levels of HL. The multivariable analysis indicated factors that were significantly associated with adequate and excellent levels HL including adequacy of per diem (adjusted odds ratio [adj. OR] = 6.78; 95% CI: 3.54-12.97) and had good relationship with teachers (adj. OR = 2.19; 95% CI: 1.55-3.09). Sources of health education which were received health education from parents (adj. OR = 3.51; 95% CI: 2.39-5.14), from teachers (adj. OR = 2.03; 95% CI: 1.43-2.89), and from the Internet (adj. OR = 1.83; 95% CI: 1.12-2.99) were also significantly associated with HL. Another significant factor was had good level of health knowledge (adj. OR = 1.86; 95% CI: 1.30-2.66) when control clustering effect of region, provinces, school, and classroom size. CONCLUSIONS: More than 85% of children ages 9-10 years in Thailand had adequate and excellence levels of HL. Sociocultural and health knowledge had influence on children HL.