Abstract
Purpose: Female caregivers play an important role to take care of their family health and food choice when one of family members is sick. Caregivers with inadequate health literacy skills have been shown to have poorer understanding of anticipatory guidance such as healthy food choice. Little is known about the relationships among health literacy, understanding of health information, and food choice in female caregivers at hospitals. This study was to explore the relationships among health literacy, understanding of health information, and food choice in female caregivers of adult patients in Korea.
Methods: Using a cross-sectional survey design, 217 female caregivers were recruited from 5 hospitals via convenience sampling. Health literacy was measured by 6 items of Newest Vital Sign (NVS). Understanding health information was measured by 8 items of Mandarine health literacy scale (Lee S-YD, Tsai T-I, Tsai Y-W, 2013) from National Health Research Institutes. Food choice was measured by 12 items based on USDA Diet and health knowledge survey.
Results: Mean age of female caregivers were 44.52 years old (SD=12.25) and 46% graduated college and above, and most of them (68%) were wife. Level of health literacy was 3.62(SD=2.09) ranged from 0 to 6 indicating inadequate level. Correction rates for NVS items to measure health literacy was wide ranged from 26% to 80%. Level of understanding health information was about 3 point out of 5 indicating greater need for further explanation. They believed to have strong relationships between illness and food nutrients such as calories, trans-fat, cholesterol, and sodium. However, only 31% of women read food label. Women"s better health literacy and greater perceived benefit of healthy diet pattern were associated with better food choice.
Conclusion: Female caregivers reported inadequate health literacy but they believed illness and food nutrients were highly related. Health literacy and healthy food choice were related. Health education and counseling for female caregivers may help promoting women and their family health.
Sigma Membership
Alpha Mu
Lead Author Affiliation
Chungnam National University, Daejeon, Korea, Republic of (South)
Type
Poster
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
N/A
Research Approach
N/A
Keywords:
Caregivers, Food Choices, Health Literacy
Recommended Citation
Ahn, Sukhee; Oh, Jiwon; Kim, Jisoon; Park, Seyeon; and Yoo, Hyeji, "The association of health literacy, understanding of health information, and food choice in female caregivers" (2017). INRC (Congress). 1.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/inrc/2017/posters_2017/1
Conference Name
28th International Nursing Research Congress
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Dublin, Ireland
Conference Year
2017
Rights Holder
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Acquisition
Proxy-submission
The association of health literacy, understanding of health information, and food choice in female caregivers
Dublin, Ireland
Purpose: Female caregivers play an important role to take care of their family health and food choice when one of family members is sick. Caregivers with inadequate health literacy skills have been shown to have poorer understanding of anticipatory guidance such as healthy food choice. Little is known about the relationships among health literacy, understanding of health information, and food choice in female caregivers at hospitals. This study was to explore the relationships among health literacy, understanding of health information, and food choice in female caregivers of adult patients in Korea.
Methods: Using a cross-sectional survey design, 217 female caregivers were recruited from 5 hospitals via convenience sampling. Health literacy was measured by 6 items of Newest Vital Sign (NVS). Understanding health information was measured by 8 items of Mandarine health literacy scale (Lee S-YD, Tsai T-I, Tsai Y-W, 2013) from National Health Research Institutes. Food choice was measured by 12 items based on USDA Diet and health knowledge survey.
Results: Mean age of female caregivers were 44.52 years old (SD=12.25) and 46% graduated college and above, and most of them (68%) were wife. Level of health literacy was 3.62(SD=2.09) ranged from 0 to 6 indicating inadequate level. Correction rates for NVS items to measure health literacy was wide ranged from 26% to 80%. Level of understanding health information was about 3 point out of 5 indicating greater need for further explanation. They believed to have strong relationships between illness and food nutrients such as calories, trans-fat, cholesterol, and sodium. However, only 31% of women read food label. Women"s better health literacy and greater perceived benefit of healthy diet pattern were associated with better food choice.
Conclusion: Female caregivers reported inadequate health literacy but they believed illness and food nutrients were highly related. Health literacy and healthy food choice were related. Health education and counseling for female caregivers may help promoting women and their family health.