Purpose: The aims of this study were to identify the level of health literacy, health risk perception and health behavior, and to determine health literacy and health risk perception impact on health behavior in Korean elderly.
Methods: Subjects were...
Purpose: The aims of this study were to identify the level of health literacy, health risk perception and health behavior, and to determine health literacy and health risk perception impact on health behavior in Korean elderly.
Methods: Subjects were 188 elderly aged 65 years or older in the senior welfare centers in Busan. It was used structured questionnaire which included Newest Vital Sign(NVS), health risk perception and health behavior measurement. Hierarchical regression was used to determine whether health literacy and health risk perception affected health behavior.
Result: 43.6% of subjects had a very low level of health literacy. It showed the negative relation between health literacy and health risk perception, and health risk perception and health behavior. It showed the positive relation between health literacy and health behavior. Health concern, health literacy affected health behavior. Health literacy independently explained 23.7% of health behavior. Health risk perception didn’t affect health behavior.
Conclusion: Many Korean elderly had a very low level of health literacy and health literacy was independently associated with health behavior. These findings show that health care providers need to assess health literacy and to develop the strategic methods to improve the health literacy for health behavior of the elderly.