Relationship between Health Literacy and Self-Care Behavior in Preventing Infection of Patients with Hematologic Cancer under the Epidemic of Coronavirus Disease 2019
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Abstract
Objectives: This research aimed to 1) describe the level of health literacy and the level of self-care behavior in preventing infection of patients with hematological malignancies (HMs) under the Epidemic of Coronavirus Disease - 2019 (COVID-19) and 2) examine the relationship between health literacy and self-care behavior in preventing infection of patients with HMs under Epidemic of COVID-19. Methods: Purposive sampling was used to recruit 245 patients with HMs at the Hematology and Cancer Clinic, a tertiary hospital between June to December 2021. The questionnaires were used in the study including: 1) the general information questionnaire; 2) the health literacy questionnaire among patients with HMs; and 3) the questionnaire on the self-care behavior for patients with HMs under the Epidemic of COVID-19. The instruments were validated for content validity by three experts. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to examine reliability of the 2nd and 3rd questionnaires, yielding values of .97 and .89, respectively. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Spearman’s rank correlation. Results: the results showed that the mean score of health literacy (M = 196.36, SD = 22.26) and the median score of Self-care behavior in preventing infection (MD = 117.00, IQR = 12.50) were at a high level. Furthermore, the study showed that health literacy had a moderate positive correlation with self-care behavior in preventing infection of patients with HMs under the Epidemic of COVID-19 at a significant level (rs = .40, p < .01). Conclusion: The results of this research suggest that health literacy, specifically in communication and social support, could be used to design and develop programs to promote health literacy and self-care behaviors in preventing infection in patients with hematological cancer under other infectious emerging diseases.
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