Relationship of Health Status and Healthy Behaviors with Health Literacy among Elderly in Pokhara Metropolitan, Nepal in 2023

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

School of Health and Allied Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Pokhara University, Nepal.

Abstract

Background and Objectives: The ability to understand and apply health-related information is known as health literacy. The elderly are more sensitive to the unfavorable health consequences caused by low health literacy. The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between older health literacy and healthy behaviors and health status. 

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 239 community dwelling elderly in Pokhara Metropolitan, Nepal. Multistage sampling procedure was applied. The questionnaire included Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ), self-reported health status and healthy behavior related questions. General linear model was used to examine the associations. 

Results: The proportion of people with low literacy level across each of the domains was: (i) feeling understood and supported by healthcare providers (85.4%), (ii) having sufficient information to manage own health (94.6%), (iii) social support for health (74.1%), (iv) ability to find good health information (68.6%), and (v) understand health information well enough to know what to do (78.2%), respectively whereas overall health literacy was 74.9%. Having average health status (AOR: 0.44; 95% CI: 0.17–0.92), Prostate-specific antigen PSA test in last 2 years (AOR: 0.56; 95% CI: 0.21–0.99), OPD visit in last 3 months (AOR: 1.95; 95% CI: 1.23–3.88), medication compliance (AOR: 0.23; 95% CI: 0.17–0.43), past smoking (AOR: 1.94; 95% CI: 1.80–4.11) and performing physical activity (AOR: 0.36; 95% CI: 0.20–0.68) were found to be associated with health literacy.

Conclusion: Implementing interventions for health literacy is essential to empower elderly individuals with the knowledge and skills needed for informed decision-making about their health.
 

Keywords

Acknowledgement: Authors are thankful to School of Health and Allied Sciences, Pokhara University for providing an opportunity to perform this research work and Pokhara Metropolitan Health Section for granting permission to conduct research in the specified area.


Availability of data and materials: The datasets and materials supporting this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.


Conflict of interest: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.


Consent for publication: Each author consents to the publication of the manuscript in its current form.


Ethical approval and consent to participate: The ethical approval was taken from the Institutional Review Committee (IRC) of Pokhara University (PU) (Ref no.147-079/080). The study was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki. Participants were fully informed regarding study objectives and written/ verbal consent was obtained before the initiation of the data collection. The participants were assured prior to the conduction of interview that they might not answer or even withdraw from the study if they find it very personal or sensitive for them to answer. No any sort of coercion was applied to participants in the research process. Confidentiality of the data were fully maintained and collected data are used only for the research purpose. 


Funding: A special thanks goes to Ageing Nepal for providing Ageing Nepal Fellowship 2023 in support of the research.


Author contributions: RM and DKY led the conceptualization and development of the research methodology for the study. RM and GB were instrumental in data collection, performed comprehensive data analysis, and contributed significantly to drafting the initial manuscript. GB further ensured the manuscript was meticulously reviewed and formatted to align with the journal’s submission guidelines. RM oversaw the overall manuscript preparation, while DKY provided critical supervision and constructive evaluation throughout the process. All authors actively participated in reviewing the manuscript and gave their final approval for publication. RM serves as the guarantor for the study.

 

Open Access Policy: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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