Abstract
BackgroundHealth literacy (HL) consists of different components and associates with several health outcomes, including obesity. It is linked to an individual’s knowledge, motivation, competencies, behavior, and application to everyday life. The present study aimed to determine the change of HL scores and to investigate the difference of intervention outcomes at the weight loss (WL) intervention and WL maintenance phase between the HL groups.MethodsA total of 322 participants from the MyBFF@home study completed the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) test at baseline. However, only data from 209 participants who completed the NVS test from baseline to WL intervention were used to determine the HL groups. Change of the NVS scores from baseline to WL intervention phase was categorized into two groups: those with HL improvement (increased 0.1 score and above) and those without HL improvement (no change or decreased 0.1 score and more). Independent variables in this study were change of energy intake, nutrient intake, physical activity, anthropometry measurements, and body composition measurements between baseline and WL intervention as well as between WL intervention and WL maintenance. An Independent sample t-test was used in the statistical analysis.ResultsIn general, both intervention and control participants have low HL. The study revealed that the intervention group increased the NVS mean score from baseline (1.19 scores) to the end of the WL maintenance phase (1.51 scores) compared to the control group. There was no significant difference in sociodemographic characteristics between the group with HL improvement and the group without HL improvement at baseline. Most of the dietary intake measurements at WL intervention were significantly different between the two HL groups among intervention participants. Physical activity and body composition did not differ significantly between the two HL groups among both intervention and control groups.ConclusionThere was an improvement of HL during the WL intervention and WL maintenance phase in intervention participants compared to control participants. HL shows positive impacts on dietary intake behavior among intervention participants. New research is suggested to explore the relationship between HL and weight loss behaviors in future obesity intervention studies.
Highlights
Health literacy (HL) consists of different components and associates with several health outcomes, including obesity
39.0% of them were categorised into the group with HL improvement. 36.3% of control participants were categorised into the group with HL improvement
When we look in depth into the change of Newest Vital Sign (NVS) scores among participants, HL have significant impact on dietary behaviour among intervention participants
Summary
Health literacy (HL) consists of different components and associates with several health outcomes, including obesity. Previous studies found that HL was associated with health status and health behaviour among adult population with chronic diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes [2,3,4]. Previous studies revealed that HL was associated with obesity in different age groups. School-going adolescents with lower HL score has been associated with an increased risk of being obese compared to those with higher HL score in Taiwan [7]. A previous German population representative study found that lower numeracy which is part of HL among parents was significantly associated with having child who either being underweight or overweight due to poorer portion-size estimation and inferior comprehensive of growth chart [9]. Only several studies on HL were conducted in Malaysia
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