Factors related with Health Literacy in Asian Immigrant Women in Korea

Jisook An; Hye-Ryun Kim; Sook Ja Yang

doi:10.12799/jkachn.2013.24.4.377

Journal List > J Korean Acad Community Health Nurs > v.24(4) > 1058321

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An, Kim, and Yang: Factors related with Health Literacy in Asian Immigrant Women in Korea

Original Article

Journal of Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing 2013; 24(4): 377-387.

Published online: 31 December 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12799/jkachn.2013.24.4.377

Factors related with Health Literacy in Asian Immigrant Women in Korea

Jisook An¹, Hye-Ryun Kim², Sook Ja Yang¹

¹Division of Nursing Science, College of Health Sciences, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea.

²Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, Seoul, Korea.

Corresponding author: Yang, Sook Ja. Division of Nursing Science, College of Health Sciences, Ewha Womans University, 11-1 Daehyun-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-750, Korea. Tel: +82-2-3277-4652, Fax: +82-2-3277-2850, yangsj@ewha.ac.kr

Received 14 August 2013 Revised 18 November 2013 Accepted 11 December 2013

(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 purpose of this study is to identify health literacy levels of Asian immigrant women in Korea and factors related with health literacy in them among other sociodemographic characteristics.

Methods

Data were drawn from 671 immigrant women who came from China, Vietnam, the Philippines, and other Asian countries (M age=28.1±5.89) using REALM-R, which consisted of 8 medical words and was translated into Korean (score range: 0~8). Data were analyzed using SPSS/WIN 20.0 program for descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Scheffé test and multiple regression.

Results

The average score of health literacy was 5.0±2.61. Time since immigration, country of origin, education level, and Korean language proficiency significantly predicted levels of health literacy in Asian immigrant women (adjusted R square=.200, p<.001).

Conclusion

When health care professionals provide health care services and health education, they should consider levels of health literacy and factors related with health literacy in Asian immigrant women.

Keywords: Immigrants, Women, Health literacy

Figures and Tables

Table 1

Sociodemographic Characteristics of Study Participants (N=671)

^†Cambodia, Thailand, Mongolia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Russia, Uzbekistan, India, Nepal, Iran; ^‡Missing data were excluded.

Table 2

Health literacy of Study Participants (N=671)

^†These words were not scored as part of the REALM-R, but left at the beginning of the REALM-R to decrease test anxiety and enhance patient confidence.

Table 3

Differences of Health Literacy according to Sociodemographic Characteristics (N=671)

^†Cambodia, Thailand, Mongolia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Russia, Uzbekistan, India, Nepal, Iran; ^‡Missing data were excluded.

Table 4

Multiple Regression Analysis for Variables Predicting Health Literacy (N=671)

^†Dummy variable (1=Vietnam); ^‡Dummy variable (1=The Philippines); ^§Dummy variable (1=Others).

Notes

This research was supported by Korea Health Promotion Foundation funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare.

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