Health literacy, health status, and healthcare utilization of Taiwanese adults: results from a national survey

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Shoou-Yih D Lee¹  Ken N Kuo²  Yi-Wen Tsai³  Tzu-I Tsai⁴ 

[1] Department of Health Management and Policy, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, 1420 Washington Heights, 48109-2029, Ann Arbor, MI, USA;Health Policy Research and Development, Institute of Population Health Sciences, National Health Research Institutes, 35, Keyan Road, 350, Zhunan Town, Miaoli County, Taiwan;Institute of Health and Welfare Policy, National Yang-Ming University, No.155, Sec.2, Linong Street, 112, Taipei, Taiwan;School of Nursing, National Yang-Ming University, No.155, Sec.2, Linong Street, 112, Taipei, Taiwan;

关键词: Educational Attainment;    Health Literacy;    Health Care Utilization;    Residential Location;    Multinomial Logit Model;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-10-614

 received in 2010-05-14, accepted in 2010-10-16,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundLow health literacy is considered a worldwide health threat. The purpose of this study is to assess the prevalence and socio-demographic covariates of low health literacy in Taiwanese adults and to investigate the relationships between health literacy and health status and health care utilization.MethodsA national survey of 1493 adults was conducted in 2008. Health literacy was measured using the Mandarin Health Literacy Scale. Health status was measured based on self-rated physical and mental health. Health care utilization was measured based on self-reported outpatient clinic visits, emergency room visits, and hospitalizations.ResultsApproximately thirty percent of adults were found to have low (inadequate or marginal) health literacy. They tended to be older, have fewer years of schooling, lower household income, and reside in less populated areas. Inadequate health literacy was associated with poorer mental health (OR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.35-0.91). No association was found between health literacy and health care utilization even after adjusting for other covariates.ConclusionsLow (inadequate and marginal) health literacy is prevalent in Taiwan. High prevalence of low health literacy is not necessarily indicative of the need for interventions. Systematic efforts to evaluate the impact of low health literacy on health outcomes in other countries would help to illuminate features of health care delivery and financing systems that may mitigate the adverse health effects of low health literacy.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Lee et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.