Health Literacy of Migrants: Infectious and Noncommunicable Diseases

Abstract

This chapter examines migrant’s health literacy on communicable and noncommunicable diseases. Based on the most reported infectious disease, apart from malaria, and noncommunicable disease from the immediate clinics in Old Fadama and James Town, a survey questionnaire was developed to measure migrant’s functional, communicative/interactive, and critical health literacy based on Nutbeam’s health literacy typologies. The questionnaire was administered to a random sample of 150 individuals per site. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, reliability analyses, validity analyses, independent samples t-test, Pearson correlation, and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The instruments were reliable and achieved very good Cronbach Alpha values. The results indicate that, in James Town, there is a low level of functional, communicative, and critical health literacy among the study respondents regarding infectious disease. Similar trend is found in Old Fadama although migrants in Old Fadama scored better on communicative health literacy regarding upper respiratory disease. Hypertension was the noncommunicable disease mostly reported in both slums. Health literacy was found to be demographically differentiated. Generally, the higher one’s general literacy, the better their scores on health literacy.