Effect of a Health Literacy Enhancing Program through the MJU Health Application on Health Literacy Among Older Persons with Hypertension
Keywords:
Health literacy, Older persons, HypertensionAbstract
Hypertension is a chronic disease that cannot be cured. However, it can be controlled if there is awareness in practicing to control hypertension, and health literacy is an important skill. This quasi-experimental study aimed to examine the effects of a health literacy program through the MJU health application on health literacy among older persons with hypertension. The participants were older persons with hypertension who received treatment at the Subdistrict Health Promoting Hospital in San Sai district, Chiang Mai. Seventy participants were purposively selected and assigned to either a control or an experimental group, with 35 in each group. The participants in the control group received routine care while those in the experimental group attended the program. The research instruments consisted of 1) a health literacy enhancing program through the MJU health application and 2) a handbook for health literacy among elders with hypertension, which was checked for content validity by three experts. The instruments used for data collection consisted of 1) the health literacy for older persons with hypertension questionnaire, with a content validity index of .81, and 2) the satisfaction on application use among older persons with hypertension questionnaire which was assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient, producing a reliability value of .86. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and t-test.
The results of this study revealed that:
1. The health literacy mean score for the experimental group after attending the program (M = 62.69, SD = 5.76) was significantly higher than beforehand (M = 00, SD = 9.29, t = -5.48, p < .05).
2. The health literacy mean score for the experimental group who attended the program (M = 62.69, SD = 5.76) was significantly higher than that of the control group (M = 55.20, SD = 8.73, t = -4.23, p < .05).
3. The sample group was satisfied with using the MJU Health application with a mean score of 3.67.
This study indicated that the health literacy enhancing program through the MJU health application can improve the health literacy levels of older persons with hypertension.
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