• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.53-61
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• 2012

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.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.65-73
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• 2014

Purpose: The aim of this study is to clarify the level of health literacy, health risk perception and health behavior of Korean elders and to determine the impact of their health literacy and health risk perception on their health behavior. Methods: A descriptive correlation study was conducted with 188 elders aged 65 or older in senior welfare centers in Busan. Questionnaires were used to measure levels of health literacy, health risk perception, and health behavior. Descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Kruskal Wallis test, Pearson's correlation, and hierarchical regression were performed. Results: 43.6% of the subjects had low levels of health literacy. There was a negative relation between health literacy and health risk perception, and between health risk perception and health behavior. There was a positive relation between health literacy and health behavior. Health concern, health literacy affected health behavior. Health literacy independently accounted for 24% of health behavior. Health risk perception didn't affect health behavior. Conclusion: Many of the Korean elders had low levels of health literacy and health literacy was independently associated with health behavior. These findings show that interventions for improving health literacy are necessary to enhance health behavior of the elderly.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.330-341
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• 2015

Purpose: This study developed a self-report measure for easy assessing of the health literacy of Asian immigrant women in South Korea. Methods: After a literature review, focus group interviews, and content validity evaluation, 14 preliminary items were generated. These were translated into Chinese, Vietnamese, and English. Data were collected from 229 Asian immigrant women. Validity and reliability tests were conducted. Results: Factor analysis yielded final 10 items in three factors: primary functional and interactive health literacy, secondary functional and interactive health literacy, and critical health literacy, which explained 61.90% of the total variance of health literacy. In known-group comparisons, health literacy was significantly lower in recent immigrants, those with a low education level, and those with low Korean language proficiency. For convergent validity, health literacy was positively associated with health specific self-efficacy and maternal health knowledge. For criterion-related validity, health literacy was positively associated with the REALM-SF. The overall reliability coefficient (Cronbach's ${\alpha}$) of the instrument was .773. Conclusion: The Health Literacy Assessment Scale for Asian Immigrant Women (HLAS) represents a multidimensional construct which encompasses functional, interactive, and critical health literacy. This self-report HLAS can be a useful and convenient method for appraising the health literacy of Asian immigrant women.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.71-81
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the trends in domestic research related to health literacy in children and adolescents. Methods: Six journal articles and four dissertations or theses related to health literacy in children and adolescents were analyzed according to the following criteria: study aim, research design, study population and sample size, sampling method, health literacy variables, and characteristics of health literacy measurement instruments. Result: The majority of studies focused on general children and adolescents. Correlational studies were most prevalent, while no experimental study was identified at all. The variable most frequently explored in relation to health literacy was health promoting behaviors. Functional health literacy instruments, assessing numeracy and reading comprehension, were most commonly used to evaluate child and adolescent health literacy. Conclusion: Considering the emphasis on health literacy improvement in order to achieve health equity across the entire life cycle, there is a need for both quantitative and qualitative growth in domestic health literacy studies for children and adolescents. School-based interventions are essential for enhancing health literacy. Furthermore, it is also necessary to develop an instrument to measure health literacy of children and adolescents that can be utilized and monitored at the national level.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.256-265
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• 2017

Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify levels of health literacy and reported health behaviors among older adults with cardio-cerebrovascular disease residing in rural areas. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a convenience sample of 134 older people (mean age=75.5 years, 71.6% Female) registered at seven health centers. The structured questionnaires were used to measure levels of health literacy and health behaviors. Results: The average functional health literacy score was $6.08{\pm}3.04$, and the health behavior score was $62.92{\pm}6.45$. Respectively health behavior was positively associated with health literacy. Education, economic status, number of family members, number of social activities and health literacy were contribution factors explaining 40.64% of the variance in health behavior. Health literacy specifically explained 12.5% of health behavior. Conclusion: These findings suggest that strategies for improving health behaviors and reducing health inequalities may benefit from adopting a stronger focus on health literacy within prevention, patient education, and other public health interventions. Further longitudinal studies are needed to help confirm that improving health literacy in the elderly may be effective in changing health behaviors.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.386-392
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• 2009

Purpose: This descriptive study was done to identify the relationship between health literacy and health status and to provide basic data for developing nursing interventions for Korean-Chinese elders living in Yanbian, China. Methods: For data collection, intentional sampling of 300 elders was used. The questionnaire was composed of 5 items based on "Ministry of Health, the People's Republic of China(2008)" to measure health literacy, 33 health status items from the "Korean Health Status Measure for Elderly People" developed by Shin(2002), revised for use in China, and 9 general characteristics. Data were analyzed using SPSS Win 13.0 program. Results: Total level of health literacy was relatively high(68.7%). Elders had high scores for taking medicines according to doctor's instruction, but lower ones for full comprehension through communication with doctors. Health status was high for emotional, physical, and social function in that order. There were significant differences between general characteristics and health status for gender, age, marital status, education, family, smoking, and alcohol consumption in that order. Results of multiple regression analysis for factors influencing health status showed that self-report health level was the most influential, followed by health literacy, age, gender. Conclusion: Health literacy is the main factor affecting health promotion among minority elders indicating a need to develop health promotion programs for elders who have low health literacy.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.257-265
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• 2013

As evaluating the health literacy is getting important, various measures for evaluation are being developed. Nevertheless, discussions about developing proper measures in Korean are still inactive. Therefore in this paper, we proposed Korean REALM (rapid estimate of adult literacy in medicine) measure that is composed of five point scale and investigated about its validity. As a result, we could find that Korean REALM measure which is composed of five point scale has high reliability, and that it formed one dimension as a result of factor analysis. Positive responses were lower than two point scale and correlation coefficient with NVS (the newest vital sign) appeared statistically significant. Therefore, we could conclude that Korean REALM measure that is composed of five point scale is a valid measurement. Furthermore, there were statistically significant differences between general students and department of nursing students about health literacy.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.251-261
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• 2015

Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify the levels of and the related factors to health literacy and health behavior compliance in patients with coronary artery disease. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a convenience sample of 121 hospitalized patients with coronary artery disease. The structured questionnaires were used to measure the levels of health literacy and health behavior compliance. Results: The average linguistic health literacy score was $32.23{\pm}21.46$, the functional health literacy score was $6.51{\pm}5.08$, and the health behavior compliance score was $61.66{\pm}15.53$. The levels of education (${\beta}$=.35), income (${\beta}$=.27), and perceived health status (${\beta}$=.21) were found significant, explaining 41.8% of the variance in linguistic health literacy. The levels of education (${\beta}$=.23), income (${\beta}$=.27), age (${\beta}$=-.24), and family support (${\beta}$=.22) were found to be significant, explaining 50.9% of the variance in functional health literacy. The levels of education (${\beta}$=.27), family support (${\beta}$=.20), and linguistic health literacy (${\beta}$=.40) were found to be the significant factors, which explained 45.1% of the variance in health behavior compliance. Linguistic health literacy specifically explained 9.5% of health behavior compliance. Conclusion: Health literacy was associated with health behavior compliance, influencing the factors of health behavior compliance. These findings suggest that the interventions for improving health literacy are necessary to enhance health behavior compliance in patients with coronary artery disease.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.57-63
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• 2019

This study aims to measure the oral health literacy of foreign women and to find out the association between oral health knowledge, oral health behavior and oral health literacy. The subjects of the study were surveyed by 248 foreign women in some areas of Gyeongbuk from June 2018 to September 2018. The results of the study showed that the verbal oral health literacy was significantly different in age, education level, and korean residence period, and functional oral health literacy in marriage, education level, and length of residence in korea. In order to promote oral health literacy of foreign women, an effective oral health program has been developed to change oral health knowledge and oral health behavior

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.27-34
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• 2011

Purpose: The objective of this research was to measure health literacy level of the visitors of a university hospital's out patient clinic and to consider its influence factors. Methods: Subjects were 400 visitors in an outpatient clinic of a university hospital. By using self-report questionnaire which included Newest Vital Sign (NVS) and general information inquiry, the level of health literacy and its influence factors were measured. The data were analyzed by using t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation. Results: The NVS score of subjects was $3.54({\pm}1.91)$ out of maximum 6 scale. The factors that have significant relationships with the health literacy were age, sex, marital status, educational background, monthly income, health information source, number of diseases, number of medications and drinking status. Participants who are men, in old age, having lack of supportive relationship, having low levels of education, having low income, having more comorbid diseases & medications, tend to have lower NVS score compared to others. Conclusion: We suggest extending our research results for evaluating the risky group to improve the health literacy and to develop the strategic methods for better health outcomes.