The Association between Community Health Literacy and Individual Health Literacy

Abstract

Community health literacy and individual health literacy have been shown to significantly predict individual health status. However, the relationship between community health literacy and individual health literacy is not clear yet. This study aimed to explore the association between community health literacy and individual health literacy. We pulled out the data from website “Sasuk Oonchai” between October 1st, 2022 - March 31st, 2023. The Chi-square test was used to explore the relationship and a binary logistic regression was run to study how well community health literacy could predict individual health literacy. The significance level was at .05. Based on 20,959 responses from 1371 communities in 12 health regions and Bangkok, a statistically significant association was found between community health literacy and individual health literacy regardless of community types. This complied with the study hypothesis. Furthermore, community health literacy could explain 36.5 percent of variances of individual health literacy. It was also found that it was 16.075 times more likely to find individuals with limited health literacy in low community health literacy areas compared with high community health literacy areas (OR = 16.075, 95 C.I.: 11.874 - 21.761). To conclude, community health literacy could predict individual health literacy. Relevant service providing organizations should consider community health literacy levels for more efficient resource allocation and effective health promoting programs.