Health literacy and associated factors among patients in some commune health centres in Hue city, 2017

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2017 to February 2018 via a convenient sample of 400 patients aged 18 and older examining and treating at four commune health centre in Hue city to investigate the health literacy levels and associated factors among patients. The questionnaire used in this research is the short-form health literacy survey tool (HL-SF12) based on the HLS-EU-Q47 (Tuyen V. Duong et al 2015). The mean GENHL score was 22.44±8.83. The proportion of “inadequate” (GEN-HL: 0-25), “problematic” (GEN-HL: >25 – 33), “sufcient” (GEN-HL: >33 – 42), “excellent” (GEN-HL: >42 – 50) in HL were 61.5%, 21.5%, 16.0%, and 1.0% respectively. . Findings showed that the limited HL (GEN-HL ≤33) was 83.0%, in health care was 78.5%, in disease prevention was 78.7% and 76.0% in health promotion. General health literacy index score was associated with: Age, the highest attained education, main status of employment, watched medical-related TV series, get medical-related information on the Internet, periodic health examination, exercise, community activity, social status, comparing health to other with similar age and gender.