Examining the Relationship between Health Literacy and Preventive Care Use

Abstract

We examined the role of health literacy on preventive care among college students and assessed individual health literacy skills from a theory-based multidimensional perspective using both subjective and objective measures. Participants (n = 561) completed our online survey with valid responses. Data collection was conducted from April to June 2020. We assessed participants’ health literacy using different measures, including Health Insurance Literacy Measure (HILM), eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS), All Aspect of Health Literacy Scale (AAHLS), and the Newest Vital Sign (NVS). The first three were subjective measures. The last one was an objective test. Preventive care included annual flu vaccinations, annual routine physical examinations, blood pressure checks, blood tests for cholesterol level, and annual dental checks. We performed logistic and linear regressions to examine the relationships among individual’s preventive care use, health literacy, and other factors including age, education, gender, race/ethnicity, health insurance coverage, and self-rated health status. Age, education, gender, race/ethnicity, health insurance coverage (medical health insurance and dental insurance), and self-rated health status predicted 15.42% of the variance (model R2) in the number of preventive care services received. Higher HILM, eHEALS, and AAHLS scores were significantly associated with a greater number of preventive care services received. The HILM increased the model R2 by 2.42%. The eHEALS increased the model R2 by 1.20%. The AAHLS increased the model R2 by 1.73%. We identified health insurance status, health literacy, self-related health status, age, gender, and race/ethnicity as important predictors of preventive care use.

Keywords

• health literacy
• flu vaccination
• routine physical examination
• blood pressure check
• cholesterol level check
• dental check