FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH HEALTH LITERACY AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HEALTH LITERACY, NUTRITIONAL STATUS, AND EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT AMONG CAREGIVERS

Abstract

This cross-sectional analytical study aimed to study health literacy in early childhood care among caregivers. Evaluate personal factors that are related to health literacy and study the relationship between health literacy, nutritional status, and early childhood development. The sample size consisted of 165 child caregivers under the responsibility of Nong Kung Si Hospital. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square, and Spearman's correlation coefficient.

The result showed that 51.5 percent of mothers were caregivers, and 49.6% of child caregivers had a fair level of health literacy in early childhood. The samples had a high level of knowledge about accessing information (52.7 percent) and a low level of correct discrimination decisions in early childhood rearing (46.7 percent). Individual factors such as relationships with children, educational level, occupation, sufficiency of income, characteristics of the residential area, and family income showed statistically significant (p-value < 0.05) correlations with health literacy in early childhood rearing. Health literacy was not related to nutritional status. However, health literacy has a statistically significant positive relationship with early childhood development (p-value < 0.05).

Therefore, the results from the research. public health personnel should be used to design a learning management process to enhance health literacy for early childhood caregivers. There should also be a study on developing a model for promoting early childhood development to ensure appropriate development.