Health Literacy, Health Risk Perception and Health Behavior of Elders

Jeong Hee Jeong; Jung Soon Kim

doi:10.12799/jkachn.2014.25.1.65

Journal List > J Korean Acad Community Health Nurs > v.25(1) > 1058363

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Jeong and Kim: Health Literacy, Health Risk Perception and Health Behavior of Elders

Original Article

Journal of Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing 2014; 25(1): 65-73.

Published online: 31 March 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12799/jkachn.2014.25.1.65

Health Literacy, Health Risk Perception and Health Behavior of Elders

Jeong Hee Jeong¹, Jung Soon Kim²

¹Graduate School, College of Nursing, Pusan National University, Yangsan, Korea.

²College of Nursing, Pusan National University, Yangsan, Korea.

Corresponding author: Kim, Jung Soon. College of Nursing, Pusan National University, 49 Busandaehak-ro, Mulgeum-eup, Yangsan 626-870, Korea. Tel: +82-51-510-8352, Fax: +82-51-510-8308, tomas@pusan.ac.kr

Received 10 February 2014 Revised 18 March 2014 Accepted 25 March 2014

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this study is to clarify the level of health literacy, health risk perception and health behavior of Korean elders and to determine the impact of their health literacy and health risk perception on their health behavior.

Methods

A descriptive correlation study was conducted with 188 elders aged 65 or older in senior welfare centers in Busan. Questionnaires were used to measure levels of health literacy, health risk perception, and health behavior. Descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Kruskal Wallis test, Pearson's correlation, and hierarchical regression were performed.

Results

43.6% of the subjects had low levels of health literacy. There was a negative relation between health literacy and health risk perception, and between health risk perception and health behavior. There was a positive relation between health literacy and health behavior. Health concern, health literacy affected health behavior. Health literacy independently accounted for 24% of health behavior. Health risk perception didn't affect health behavior.

Conclusion

Many of the Korean elders had low levels of health literacy and health literacy was independently associated with health behavior. These findings show that interventions for improving health literacy are necessary to enhance health behavior of the elderly.

Keywords: Health literacy, Health behavior, Elderly

Figures and Tables

Table 1

General and Health related Characteristics of Subjects and Health Literacy, Health Risk Perception and Health Behavior according to Subject's Characteristics (N=188)

^†Scheffé test; ^‡Kruskal Wallis test; ^§Mann-Whitney U test.

Table 2

Health Literacy, Health Risk Perception, and Health Behavior Levels and Correlations between Health Literacy, Health Risk Perception, and Health Behavior (N=188)

NVS=newest vital sign.

Table 3

Impact of Health Literacy and Health Risk Perception on Health Behavior in Elderly (N=188)

^†Standardized β.

Notes

This article is based on a part of the first author's master's thesis from Pusan National University.

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