Status and determinants of health literacy: a study among adult population in selected areas of Myanmar
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20150489Keywords:
Health literacy, Indices of health literacy, Myanmar adultsAbstract
Background: Health literacy means cognitive and social skills of an individual that determine his or her ability to access, understand and use health information in order to promote and maintain good health. Health literacy is important not only for health but also for socioeconomic development because limited health literacy increases health care cost. Objective: To determine the status and determinants of health literacy, and association between health literacy and health-risk behaviours among Myanmar population.
Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1367 adults. Multi-stage random sampling was applied. Data entry and analysis was done using Stata 11.0 statistical package.
Results: The prevalence of satisfactory, intermediate and poor health literacy were about 31.5% (95% CI: 29.1%, 34.1%), 40.3% (95% CI: 37.7%, 43.0%), and 28.2% (95% CI: 25.8%, 30.6%), respectively. Age, sex, marital status, education, sufficiency of expenditure, watching medical-related TV series, accessibility to education & health education courses, ability to pay for medication and affordability to see medical doctors were detected as significant determinants of health literacy. Health literacy was also significantly related to health-risk behaviors such as smoking, betel chewing, and not taking regular exercise. There was marginal association between health literacy and alcohol drinking (p = 0.064).
Conclusions:The present study encourages efforts to improve health literacy in the Myanmar adults by enhancing health education and health promotion activities. It is also important to improve their socio-economic status.
References
Nutbeam D, Kickbusch IS. Advancing health literacy: a global challenge for the 21st century. Health Promotion International. 2000;15(3):183-4.
Nutbeam D. Health promotion glossary. Health Promotion International. 1998;13:349-64.
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Department of Health and Human Services, United States of America. Health Literacy – Fact Sheet: Health Literacy and Health Outcomes. Available at: http://www.health.gov/communication/literacy/quickguide/factsliteracy.htm (last accessed on 30th May, 2014).
World Health Organization. Track 2: Health literacy and health behaviour. Available at: http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/7gchp/track2/en/ (last accessed on 28th November, 2013).
Duncan G. Health literacy factors to consider in empowering patients to ask question. Available at: http://www.fip.org/abstracts?page=abstracts&action=generatePdf&item=10269 (last accessed 30th December, 2014).
Gillis G, Quigley A. Taking off the blindfold: seeing how literacy affects health. Health literacy in rural Nova Scotia Research Project (2014). Available at: http://www.nald.ca/healthliteracystfx/pubs/takngoff/takngoff.pdf (last accessed on 3rd March, 2015).
Weiss BD. Health literacy and patient safety: helps patients understand. Chicago, III: AMA Foundation (2007). Available at: http://nnlm.gov/outreach/consumer/hlthlit.html (last accessed on 3rd March, 2015).
Eichler K, Wieser S, Brugger U. The cost of limited health literacy: a systematic review. International Journal of Public Health. 2009;54(5):313-24.
Kickbush IS. Health literacy: addressing the health and education divide. Health Promotion International. 2001;16(3):289-97.
Williams MV, Baker DW, Parker RM & Nurss JR. Relationship of functional health literacy to patient’s knowledge of their chronic disease: a study of patients with hypertension and diabetes. Archives of Internal Medicine. 1998;158:166-72.
Wagner CV, Knight K, Steptoe A & Wardle J. Functional health literacy and health-promoting behaviour in a national sample of British adults. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2007;61:1086-90.
Apolinario D, Mansur LL, Cathery-Goulart MT, Brucki SMD & Nitrini R. Detecting limited health literacy in Brazil: development of a multidimensional screening tool. Available at: http://heapro.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/10/30/heapro.dat0. Last accessed on 31st May, 2014.
D’ Cruz AM, Aradhya MRS. Health literacy among Indian adults seeking dental care. Dent Res J (Isfahan). 2013;10(1):20-4.
Rathnakar UP, Madhuri B, Ashwin K, Unnikrishnan B, Ashok SK, Udupa AL. Evaluation of health literacy status among patients in a tertiary care hospital in Coastal Karnataka, India. Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research. 2013;7(11);2551-4.
Kutner M, Greenberg E, Jin Y & Paulsen C. The health literacy of America’s adults: results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NCES 2006-483). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.
Paasche-Orlow MK, Parker RM, Gazmararian JA, Nielsen-Bohlman LT & Rudd RR. The prevalence of limited health literacy. J Gen Intern Med. 2005;20:175-84.
Sentell T & Braun K. Low health literacy, limited English proficiency, and health status in Asians, Latinos, and Other Racial/Ethnic groups in California. J Health Commun. 2012;17(Suppl 3):82-99.
Sun X, Shi Y, Zeng Q, Wang Y, Du W, Wei N, Xie R & Chang C. Determinants of health literacy and health behaviour regarding infectious respiratory diseases: a pathway model. Available at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/13/261. Last accessed on 30th May, 2014.
