The Relationship between Health Literacy and Practice Prevention from COVID-19 of Elderly Case Study: Waeng Nang Sub-District, Maha Sarakham Province

Abstract

The objective of this descriptive research was to investigate health literacy about COVID-19, COVID-19 preventive practices and the relationship between health literacy and practice Prevention from COVID – 19 of elderly. The sample size was 262 people. Data were collected by a questionnaire. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics such as percentage, mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum as well as inferential statistics such as Pearson correlation coefficient.

The results of this study indicated that the sample’s health literacy about COVID-19 was at a good level with a mean of 93.82 (S.D. =10.54) and the sample had COVID-19 preventive practice at a regular level with a mean of 2.57 (SD = 0.23). The results of the relationship between health literacy and practice prevention from COVID – 19 indicated that access to health information and services, health cognition enough for practice, inquiry and response interaction to enhance health literacy, health decision making, behavior modification, and word-of-mount were associated with COVID-19 preventive practices with a statistical significance level of 0.05.

Therefore, relevant government agencies such as Subdistrict Health Promoting Hospital should formulate a concrete policy and plan to encourage the elderly people to be aware of and surveil COVID-19 prevention. Elderly people should be educated and gain knowledge and understanding about COVID-19 and have access to regular news and updates for continued practices in COVID-19 prevention, improving the quality of life.