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Exploring the Possibility of Using Public Institution's Health Message for Measuring Health Literacy  

Hong, Kyung-Jin (Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University)
Ju, Young-Gi (School of Communnication, Hallym University)
Jun, Sang-Il (Korea Institute of Environment and Health)
Yoon, Hye-Jung (Risk Analysis and Research Division, Korea Food and Drug Administration)
You, Myoung-Soon (Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University)
Publication Information
Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion / v.29, no.3, 2012 , pp. 53-61 More about this Journal
Abstract
Objectives: Improving public capability to obtain, understand, and use health information is important for decision-making and communication. This study attempts to measure adults' literacy of the information provided by a public health institution. Factors affecting different health literacy level are also investigated. The relation between public risk perception and health literacy is examined as well. Methods: A total of 800 korean adults were surveyed. To provide the participants health literacy questions, health messages of heavy metals released by KFDA as well as literacy questions developed by NIKL were used. A total of eight questions were developed to measure health literacy. The dimensions of risk perception proposed by Brewer et al.(2008) were modified to measure risk perception. Results: The average percentage of correct answer for all literacy questions was only 65.57%. Individuals at the older age, and with lower education/ income level were more likely to be low literate. In addition, health literacy was strongly associated with risk perception. Conclusions: Public literacy of health information is influenced by socio demographic factors. This study suggested a possibility that low health literacy may affect unrealistically high risk perception. Further studies with sophisticated methodologies to measure health literacy need to be developed.
Keywords
Health literacy; Heavy metal; KFDA; Risk perception;
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