A Population-Based Study on Health Literacy and Health Behaviors

Abstract

Health literacy has been proved to be associated with various domains of health. The objective is to describe the prevalence and distribution of health literacy and health behaviors and define the association between health literacy and health behaviors in Taiwan. An area sampling was applied in this study. Structured in-person interviews in the respondents' home were conducted to obtain information on patient demographics, health behaviors, and health literacy. The participants were 569 females and 529 males with average age of 35. Over half of them did not use alcohol, had physical activity, and 68.0% kept normal BMI. The logistic regression constructed for health literacy revealed that physical activity and BMI are important factors other than gender, and education. Men have less health literacy than women. The higher educated have higher health literacy. A person who takes physical activity has higher health literacy. And an overweight person has higher health literacy. We must illuminate the causal pathways linking health literacy and health outcomes and use this information to design more comprehensive and effective interventions.



Author Information
Hsieh-Hua Yang, Oriental Institute of Technology, Taiwan
Hung-Jen Yang, National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan

Paper Information
Conference: ACP2016
Stream: Psychology and Education

This paper is part of the ACP2016 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon