A Case Study of Health Literacy of Village Health Volunteers

Abstract

Introduction: Village Health Volunteer system is the backbone of primary health care in Thailand.  Village Health Volunteers (VHVs) are important persons involved in health care development in community. Therefore, VHVs with high health literacy are needed to efficiently provide care and knowledge to the people in their community. The objective of this study was to assess cognitive skill aspect of health literacy of VHVs in Ubon Ratchathani province.  Materials and Method: This study was a cross-sectional study. The sample included VHVs of two Tumbon Promoting Hospitals in Ubon Ratchathani province.  Data were collected by a self-administered questionnaire during August 2013.  A new instrument developed to assess VHVs’ health literacy in this study.  The samples were required to read health information in print media and then answered the corresponding questions in order to assess their understanding and interpretation for 20 topics.   For data analysis descriptive statistics, nonparametric including, Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test were used. Results: There were 168 VHVs participated in this study. Most were female (93.3%) and married (77.8%). Their average age was 47.8 + 10.3 years old.  One half of them was graduated at primary school level or lower (51.2%).  About thirty six percent worked in agricultures (36.3%) and 33.9% were employees.  Nearly two thirds had working duration as VHVs more than two years (63.8%).  Majority of them had average monthly income 5,000 Baht or less (67.1%). The samples had average health literacy score as 14.8 ± 3.2 (Mean + SD) out of 20 points.   There were significant associations between VHVs’ characteristics including age and education and health literacy scores (p< 0.01). Conclusion: Most samples had adequate health literacy scores. However, some participants misinterpreted print media regarding health care issues in various topics. Unfortunately, the VHVs’ capacities on providing health education or health information to their communities may be compromised due to limited health literacy.  In addition, most participants assessed themselves lacking of confidence to provide knowledge to their communities. Findings also suggest that demographics of VHVs including age and education should be well considered in the recruitment process because these characteristics are associated with their cognitive skill aspect of health literac.