Relation between Health Literacy and Health Promoting Behaviors among Elderly at Tanta City

Nadia Aldosokey,Ikbal Elshafeai,Lulah Abdelatey Hassan,Nahla Said Mahmoud Mahmoud

doi:10.21608/tsnj.2021.185223

Abstract

Health literacy is an emerging concept in the health care environment. It is one of the main factors that is related to adoption of the healthy lifestyle behaviors. Low health literacy in older adults leads to poor overall health. The aim of the study: was to assess the relation between health literacy and health promoting behaviors among elderly at Tanta city. Study design: A descriptive correlational study design was used in this study. Study settings: This study was conducted at the outpatient clinics of health insurance hospital at Tanta city. Study subjects: A convenience sample of 400 elderly who attend the previous setting was included in the study. Study tool: A structured interview schedule was used to collect data in this study which consisted of four parts: Part I: Socio-demographic characteristics and medical history of the elderly. Part II: Assessment of health literacy for the elderly. Part III: The Health Promotion Lifestyle Profile II (HPLP-II). Part IV: Assessment of the elderly knowledge about the basic health information. Results: about two thirds of the studied elderly had poor level of health literacy while more than half of the studied elderly had moderate level of adherence to health promoting behaviors. In addition, there was significant positive correlation between total health literacy scores, total knowledge scores, and total health promotion behaviors scores (P<0.005).Conclusion: Poor health literacy level was associated with low adherence to the healthy lifestyle among the studied elderly. Therefore, the community health nurse should organize health education programs about health promoting lifestyles and health literacy for older adults to help in improving their overall health.

Highlights

There has been massive increase in the number of the older adult worldwide
The community health nurse should organize health education programs about health promoting lifestyles and health literacy for older adults to help in improving their overall health
A Chinese study conducted by Li, et al, (2020) [39] who studied the associations among health-promoting lifestyle, health literacy, and cognitive health in older Chinese and Iranian study conducted by Cherik et al, (2018) [10] who studied the relationship between health literacy and health promoting behaviors in patients with type 2 diabetes

Summary

Introduction

There has been massive increase in the number of the older adult worldwide. Engagement in health promotion activities, choosing healthy behaviors, and making changes in their lifestyle this will reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases and disabilities. It is important for older persons to adopt a healthy lifestyle practices that minimize their risk of death from morbidity and maximize their healthful aging [8].The earlier adoption of those good habits, the greater the benefit in older age. Older adults carry the biggest burden because of inadequate health literacy, which is shown as an unfavorable outcome to their health such as lack of knowledge of the health promoting behaviors, underutilization of preventive health service such as vaccinations and mammograms and high morbidity rates [13,14]

Objectives

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion