Does Health Literacy Affect the Uptake of Annual Physical Check-Up?: The Varying Impact by Age Groups

Abstract

Introduction Little is known about how health literacy is linked to physical check-ups. This study aimed to examine the levels of physical check-ups by age group and the role of health literacy regarding physical check-ups. Methods Data for the study were obtained from the 2017 Health Information National Trends Survey. The original sample included 3,285 respondents, but only 3,146 surveys were used for this study. Andersen’s Behavioral Model of Health Services Use (Andersen, 1995) guided this study, and a binomial logistic regression model was conducted using Stata 12.0 software package. Results Annual check-ups were reported by 82.0% of the older group and 67.3% of the younger group. Both groups had similar ratios for health literacy-related item reporting. Study results show that annual check-up was positively associated with confidence in getting health information, having health insurance, and having a primary doctor for both age groups. However, getting a regular check-up was negatively associated with frustration while searching for information among the younger group while it was positively associated with difficulty understanding information for the older group. Conclusions To increase annual physical check-ups, health literacy-related interventions should be developed and address the barriers most associated with health check-ups. One way of addressing this barrier is to improve the line of communication from healthcare professionals to consumers through the use of easy-to-understand explanations appropriate for the consumer.

Decomposing socio-economic inequality for routine medical check-ups among older adults in India

“…The routine medical check-up was higher among older adults in urban areas. People in rural areas may have less routine medical check-up due to various reasons accounting from the unavailability of doctors to low income among people in rural households [41], [42]. Furthermore, older adults in rural areas may have poor health literacy, which can further impact their routine medical check-up [43].…”