Health literacy and health behaviors among health sciences and public health students at a Rajabhat University
Keywords:
Health literacy, Health behaviors, Health sciences and public health studentsAbstract
Health literacy is a cognitive and social skill for accessing information and understanding health information of individual which can be implement, including advising personal health, family, and the community to promote healthy behavior. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the level of health literacy and health behaviors, and explore the relationship between health literacy and health behaviors according to the principles of 3 A 2 S health behaviors (Ar-harn = Food, Aok-kam-lung-kai = Exercise, Ar-rom = Emotion, Soub-buri = Smoking and Su-ra = Alcohol). The sample consisted of 327 students from the cluster of health sciences and public health in a Rajabhat University which was selected through a stratified random sampling. Data were collected by using self-administrated questionnaire comprising of 3 parts as follows: part 1 demographic data, part 2 health literacy in relation to 3 A 2 S, and part 3 health behaviors regarding to 3 A 2 S. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the questionnaire part 2 and 3 were calculated, obtained 0.94 and 0.95. Data were collected from March to April 2022 and analyzed by descriptive statistics and Pearson's correlation coefficient.
The findings revealed that the sample group had health literacy at a very good level of 56.0% and health behaviors at a good level of 46.2%. In addition, it was found that there were significant positive relationships between health literacy and health behaviors (r= 0.14, p-value < 0.001). The results of this study could be employed in planning of promoting health literacy and health behaviors modification according to the 3 A 2 S among the students from the cluster of health sciences and public health in a Rajabhat University.
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