Health Literacy among Older Adults in a Semi-Urban Community in Ratchaburi Province
Keywords:
Health Literacy, Older AdultAbstract
Since health literacy is a primary contributing factor to health disparities, it is a continued and increasing concern for health professionals. This mixed-methods study aimed to identify the level of health literacy among older adults in a semi-urban community in Ratchaburi Province. Research had two phases. First phase was a quantitative study. Sample was 240 older adults, selected by simple random sampling. Second phase was a qualitative study. Participants were 30 older adults, selected by purposive sampling. Instruments were a health literacy questionnaire, and interview guides related to health literacy. They were tested for content validity by specialists. Reliability was tested with 30 cases similar to the sample, yielding a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.81. Quantitative data were analyzed by standard deviation, frequency, as well as percentage. Whilst qualitative data were analyzed by thematic analysis.
Overall, results showed that mean score for health literacy was at a moderate level (M=33.29, SD= 8.18). While qualitative results showed attributes of a functional health literacy level including getting aid for reading medicine labels, and hearing. In terms of communication level, five themes emerged including 1) having knowledge of diseases, 2) seeking information from a variety of sources, 3) joining activities and having communications in society, 4) being interested in the information regarding older adults, and 5) being aware of own needs of information about doctors and medicine.
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