TY - JOUR
T1 - To investigate the association between the health literacy and hand hygiene practices of the older adults to help them fight against infectious diseases in Hong Kong
AU - Or, Peggy Pui Lai
AU - Wong, Bonny Yee Man
AU - Chung, Joanne Wai Yee
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc.
PY - 2020/5
Y1 - 2020/5
N2 - Background: Proper hand hygiene helps prevent infectious diseases, while health literacy plays a critical role in preventive health behaviors. It remains unclear as to why proper hand hygiene practices cannot be sustained and what role health literacy plays in older adults fight against infectious diseases. Methods: A convenience sample of 433 old adults aged 65 and above was recruited. Their hygiene practices and health literacy were evaluated using a structured questionnaire adopted from the Centre for Health Protection and the Chinese version of the HLS-Asia-Q questionnaire. Results: The percentage distribution of the hand hygiene performance, from always to never, was 18%-10%. A majority 63.28% (274) of them were classified as having inadequate health literacy (0-25), while a meager 1.62% (7) of them as having excellent health literacy (42.01-50). The Spearman correlation showed a significant positive relationship (P < 0.05) between the participants’ health literacy and their hand hygiene practices. Conclusions: Health literacy and hand hygiene are positively related in helping the older adults fight against infectious diseases. To sustain proper hand hygiene practices is to provide frequent hand hygiene training to the older adults.
AB - Background: Proper hand hygiene helps prevent infectious diseases, while health literacy plays a critical role in preventive health behaviors. It remains unclear as to why proper hand hygiene practices cannot be sustained and what role health literacy plays in older adults fight against infectious diseases. Methods: A convenience sample of 433 old adults aged 65 and above was recruited. Their hygiene practices and health literacy were evaluated using a structured questionnaire adopted from the Centre for Health Protection and the Chinese version of the HLS-Asia-Q questionnaire. Results: The percentage distribution of the hand hygiene performance, from always to never, was 18%-10%. A majority 63.28% (274) of them were classified as having inadequate health literacy (0-25), while a meager 1.62% (7) of them as having excellent health literacy (42.01-50). The Spearman correlation showed a significant positive relationship (P < 0.05) between the participants’ health literacy and their hand hygiene practices. Conclusions: Health literacy and hand hygiene are positively related in helping the older adults fight against infectious diseases. To sustain proper hand hygiene practices is to provide frequent hand hygiene training to the older adults.
KW - Aging population
KW - Health education and promotion
KW - Preventive health behaviors
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85079043761&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ajic.2019.12.021
DO - 10.1016/j.ajic.2019.12.021
M3 - Article
C2 - 32037202
AN - SCOPUS:85079043761
SN - 0196-6553
VL - 48
SP - 485
EP - 489
JO - American Journal of Infection Control
JF - American Journal of Infection Control
IS - 5
ER -
