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Health literacy (HL) is an important factor associated with individuals’ capacity to manage their health effectively. This cross-sectional study assessed HL and its associated factors among 327 community-dwelling individuals in Northern Thailand. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews using the 47-item European Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q47). The participants were predominantly female (59.9%), with a mean age of 59.0 ± 11.7 years. Overall, 60.2% of the participants exhibited problematic HL across all domains. In bivariate analyses, overall HL was significantly associated with sex, age, body mass index (BMI), education, marital status, and hypertension. Age was negatively correlated with overall HL (r = −0.250, p < 0.001), whereas BMI was positively correlated with overall HL (r = 0.130, p = 0.019). In the multivariable linear regression model, higher education (β = 4.251, p < 0.001), female sex (β = 2.310, p = 0.002), and alcohol consumption (β = 1.411, p = 0.047) were independently associated with higher HL scores. Conversely, marital status (β = −1.747, p = 0.033) was associated with lower HL scores. Problematic HL was highly prevalent in this population and was associated with sociodemographic and health-related factors. These findings highlight the need for targeted, context-specific health communication and education strategies to improve HL among vulnerable community-dwelling populations, particularly older adults and individuals with lower educational attainment.
Sadjapong et al. (Wed,) studied this question.