Associations between Heath Literacy and Health Behaviors 3E 2S among Elderly with type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

This descriptive research aimed to explore associations between heath literacy and health behaviors (3E 2S) among elderly with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Participants were 96 elderly patients receiving diabetes health services at tambon health promoting hospitals in Udon Thani province. The study was conducted during January and September 2020. The questionnaire was reviewed for content validity and tested for reliability yielding Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.84 for health literacy and 0.71 for health behaviors (3E 2S) sections. The numeric data were analyzed using descriptive statistics: frequencies, percentages, and means. Pearson’s product moment correlation was used to determine correlations between variables. The results showed that mean scores among 7 health literacy domains was at a medium level ( =163.35, SD= 14.88) with highest mean score in reading basic medical term domain (82.77%; =54.63, SD=5.63) and lowest mean score in engaging in basic numerical data domain (38.38%; =3.07, SD=1.17). The mean scores of health behavior 3E 2S was at a medium level ( =3.13, SD=0.80). Personal factors such as gender (r=0.450) and whether elderly participated in health education activities (r=0.302) were found to be significantly associated with health behavior 3E 2S (p=0.01). Sufficient income factor was significantly associated with health literacy (r=0.236) at p=0.05. Health literacy was significantly associated with health behavior 3E 2S at r=0.359 (p-0.01). Personal factors including age, marital status, educational level, and occupation were not significantly associated with health literacy and health behavior 3E 2S (p=0.01).