Exploring the Influencing Factors of Health Literacy among Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Abstract

<jats:p>Background and Objectives: To investigate the health literacy (HL) among older adults in Taiwan, we referenced an existing integrated model of HL to confirm the influencing factors of HL in older adults. We propose this study to examine the personal, situational, and socioenvironmental factors influencing HL among older adults. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted at a district hospital and affiliated community center in northern Taiwan from August 2016 to May 2017. This study used the Mandarin Chinese version of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (EU-Q47). We designed three models based on the three domains of HL. Model 1 assesses personal factors. Model 2 incorporates situational factors. Model 3 adds the socioenvironmental factor. Results: We recruited 161 participants aged over 65 years. Most adults in this study had limited overall HL. The final regression model revealed that age &gt;85 years, unknown insurance status, and dominant spoken dialect of Hakka or Taiwanese were significantly associated with higher scores of HL. Conclusions: Our study results may help clinicians with early identification of older adults at high risk for poor HL and help health administrators establish geriatric policies and health education plans.</jats:p>

The Prevalence of Limited Health Literacy and Its Associated Factors among Elderly Patients Attending an Urban Academic Primary Care Clinic in Malaysia

“…The elderly is the most prevalent group with limited HL in many countries such as the USA, UK, Germany, Brazil, China, Taiwan, and Vietnam [8,[22][23][24][25][26]. The prevalence of limited HL in elderly populations worldwide ranged from 27 to 91.5% [27][28][29][30]. While most of these studies were conducted in a community setting [29][30][31][32], one was conducted among patients in a district hospital [28] and another was based on a population registry in Germany [27].…”

“…The prevalence of limited HL in elderly populations worldwide ranged from 27 to 91.5% [27][28][29][30]. While most of these studies were conducted in a community setting [29][30][31][32], one was conducted among patients in a district hospital [28] and another was based on a population registry in Germany [27].…”

“…Previous studies have reported several factors that were associated with HL levels among the elderly population. These include education level, ethnicity, income, age, cognitive status, presence of chronic diseases, information seeking through television or internet, and physical performance [4,23,[27][28][29][30][32][33][34][35]. Studies in China, Israel, and Germany reported that elderly persons with no or a low education had lower HL levels [27][28][29][30]33,34].…”

“…These include education level, ethnicity, income, age, cognitive status, presence of chronic diseases, information seeking through television or internet, and physical performance [4,23,[27][28][29][30][32][33][34][35]. Studies in China, Israel, and Germany reported that elderly persons with no or a low education had lower HL levels [27][28][29][30]33,34]. A Chinese study found that being in an ethnic minority group was associated with having limited HL [29].…”

“…Income deprivation was also associated with limited HL according to studies conducted in China and Germany [27,29,30,32]. Several studies also concluded that older age was linked to limited HL [23,28,32]. In contrast, the elderly in Finland and China with a lesser number of chronic diseases had lower levels of limited HL [4,29].…”