The Action Research for Enhancing Health Literacy among Elderly in Nongtrud Sub-district, Trang Province

Abstract

This action research aimed to enhance health literacy regarding health status and health behaviors (food, exercise, emotion, smoking and alcohol cessation) among the elderly in the Nongtrud Subdistrict, Trang District, Trang Province. Participants were purposively selected elderly residents of the first, second, third, and seventh villages in the Nongtrud Sub-district who aged 60-69 years old. One-hundred forty-seven participants, which was 75.38% of the target population, were recruited in the process of health literacy assessment. While 42 participants involved in activities for enhancing health literacy. The study was conducted from July to November 2018. Data were collected using participant observation and interviews. Instruments were the health status questionnaire and the health literacy and health behaviors (food, exercise, emotion, smoking and alcohol cessation) (revised version 2018) developed by the Health Education Division, Ministry of Public Health. The questionnaire showed acceptable internal consistency reliability with Cronbach’s alphas equal to 0.72. Percentage, mean, standard deviation, and the Wilcoxon match pairs singed-rank test were used to analyze data. After complement of activities for enhancing health literature within three month period, findings showed as follows: (1) access: participants were able to access health behaviors (food exercise emotion) information throughout joining activities, but lacked self-access to health information; (2) understand: health behaviors (food, exercise, emotion) post-test scores of participants increased significantly (p<0.001), and (3) apply: participants reported their experiences in utilizing knowledge and sharing information to others. Since the findings of this study indicated that some parts of health literacy among the elderly participants were increased, the elderly who have inappropriate health literacy and health behaviors should receive proactive activities individually.