Health Literacy and Factors Related to Health Literacy of the Elderly in San Sai District, Chiang Mai Province

Abstract

The research article consisted of the following objectives: 1) to investigate the health literacy of the elderly; and 2) to explore factors related to health literacy of the elderly in Sansai district, Chiang Mai province. The sample group consisted of 388 elderly people in the Sansai district who are able to lead regular lives without any mental or physical disabilities. A questionnaire on health literacy was included in the research instruments, as well as a questionnaire asking about personal factors, self-reliance factors, and social relations factors. The descriptive statistics used for data analysis were frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation (S.D.). The inference statistics for data analysis included multiple linear regression. From the study, the following results are found:

1) From investigating the health literacy of the elderly in Sansai district, Chiang Mai province, it is discovered to be at a high level, with a mean equal to 3.64. When each item is taken into account, the following items are discovered in descending order from high to low: decision-making abilities; a sufficient understanding of information and health services for practice; self-regulation of one's own health; media literacy, communication skills, and social support; and access to health information and services, respectively.

2) From analyzing factors related to health literacy of the elderly in Sansai district, Chiang Mai province, it is found that factors of gender, age, income, self-reliance, and social relationships all explained 45.3% of the variation in elderly health literacy (F = 44.879, P<0.05, R²= 0.453).