Correlations of health literacy with individuals' understanding and use of medications in Southern Taiwan.

IF 1.6 4区医学 Q2 MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL

Open Medicine Pub Date : 2025-07-08 eCollection Date: 2025-01-01 DOI:10.1515/med-2025-1203

Pin-Tzu Chen, Min-Li Chen, Li-Chun Chang, Chin-Ho Kuo, Yu-Hsiang Kuan

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: Investigated the relationship between health literacy and treatment adherence and compliance due to incorrect medication use resulting from low health literacy in southern Taiwan.

Methods: A cross-sectional study in Chiayi, Taiwan (Sep-Nov 2013) used randomized sampling to survey 300 adults. Health literacy was assessed via the test of functional health literacy in adults, and medication knowledge/behavior was assessed via a validated questionnaire (KR-20 = 0.83). Data were analyzed using SPSS (chi-square, t-tests, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation, P < 0.05).

Results: It was found that 97.9% of the respondents had adequate health literacy. Age negatively correlated with health literacy (r = -0.395; P < 0.0001) and positively with medication knowledge (r = 0.121; P = 0.038). Women exhibited higher health literacy and medication knowledge than men. Higher education levels and living with health professionals were associated with better health literacy. Patients with chronic diseases had lower health literacy than those without (mean scores: 31.5 vs 32.7). Significant correlations were observed between health literacy and treatment adherence and compliance and use.

Conclusions: Targeted health literacy interventions are required across different ages, genders, and education levels to improve medication use and health outcomes. Future research should examine the long-term effects of these interventions.

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台湾南部健康素养与个人对药物的了解与使用之关系。

背景：调查台湾南部地区低健康素养导致的不正确用药与治疗依从性的关系。方法：采用横断面研究方法（2013年9月- 11月）对台湾省嘉义市300名成人进行随机抽样调查。通过成人功能健康素养测试评估健康素养，通过有效问卷评估药物知识/行为（KR-20 = 0.83）。数据采用SPSS统计分析（χ 2、t检验、方差分析、Pearson相关，P < 0.05）。结果：97.9%的被调查者具有足够的健康素养。年龄与健康素养呈负相关(r = -0.395；P < 0.0001)，与用药知识呈正相关(r = 0.121；P = 0.038)。女性的健康素养和用药知识均高于男性。较高的教育水平和与卫生专业人员一起生活与更好的卫生素养有关。慢性疾病患者的健康素养低于无慢性疾病患者（平均得分：31.5比32.7）。健康素养与治疗依从性、依从性和使用之间存在显著相关性。结论：在不同年龄、性别和教育水平的人群中，需要有针对性的健康素养干预措施来改善药物使用和健康结果。未来的研究应该检查这些干预措施的长期影响。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Open Medicine Medicine-General Medicine

CiteScore

3.00

自引率

0.00%

发文量

153

审稿时长

20 weeks

期刊介绍： Open Medicine is an open access journal that provides users with free, instant, and continued access to all content worldwide. The primary goal of the journal has always been a focus on maintaining the high quality of its published content. Its mission is to facilitate the exchange of ideas between medical science researchers from different countries. Papers connected to all fields of medicine and public health are welcomed. Open Medicine accepts submissions of research articles, reviews, case reports, letters to editor and book reviews.