ID-5184 Wonca Abstracts supplement A-K 13-10-23 - Flipbook - Page 276
WONCA 2023 Supplement 1: WONCA 2023 abstracts (A–K)
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Association of health literacy with the prevalence of
cardiovascular diseases and their risk factors among
elderly Japanese health management specialists
Prof Nobutaka Hirooka1,2, Takeru Kusano2, Shunsuke Kinoshita2
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Department of Community Medicine, Saitama Medical University, 2Department of General Internal
Medicine, Saitama Medical University
Background
Studies have shown that health literacy influences health-related behaviours. However, little is known
the association between health literacy and lifestyle-related disease among elderly individuals. We aim
to investigate the effect of health literacy on cardiovascular disease (CVD) development among the
elderly population who gained knowledge and skills of health promotion.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted among Japanese health management specialists (n = 593,
average age 71.3 years). The number of male and female participants was 294 (49.6%) and 299
(50.4%), respectively. A higher level (communicative and critical) of health literacy was measured.
Lifestyle-related diseases (stroke and coronary heart disease) and their risk factors (diabetes mellitus,
hypertension, dyslipidaemia and obesity) were assessed by questionnaire.
Results
Logistic regression analyses showed that there were statistically significant associations between
a higher level of health literacy and the prevalence of CVDs (β coefficient = –0.091, P < 0.05) and
their metabolic risk factors including diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidaemia and obesity
(β coefficient = –0.084, P < 0.01). We found that there were statistically significant associations
between health literacy measured and the count of CVDs and its risk factors (β coefficients of Poisson
regression = –0.036, P < 0.05).
Conclusion
Health literacy is fundamentally related to a low prevalence of CVDs and their metabolic risk factors
such as diabetes mellitus, dyslipidaemia and hypertension.
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