Levels of health literacy in a community-dwelling population of Chinese older adults.
BACKGROUND
Lower levels of health literacy have been associated with adverse health outcomes, especially for older adults. However, limited research has been conducted to understand health literacy levels among Chinese American older adults.


METHODS
The PINE study is an epidemiological cohort of 3,159 community-dwelling Chinese older adults, 95% of whom do not speak or read English. Chinese older adults' health literacy levels were examined using the Chinese version of the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine, Revised (REALM-R) test. Kruskal-Wallis test and chi-square statistics were used to identify significant differences by sociodemographic and self-reported health characteristics. Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients were used to examine correlations between personal characteristics and health literacy level.


RESULTS
The mean age among this sample of Chinese older adults was 72.8 years (SD = 8.3, range = 60-105) and the mean REALM-R test score was 6.9 [SD = 2.3, range (0-8)]. Health literacy was positively associated with education, marriage status, and number of people living with. Older age, being female, greater number of children, years in the United States, and preference for speaking Cantonese or Taishanese were negatively associated with health literacy. Health literary was not associated with self-reported health status or quality of life.


CONCLUSIONS
In this Chicago Chinese population, older adults had reasonable levels of health literacy in Chinese. Future longitudinal research is needed to understand risk/protective factors associated with health literacy level in Chinese older adults.
Department of Obstetrics/Gynecology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois. m-simon2@northwestern.edu.
Melissa A
MA
Simon
Department of Obstetrics/Gynecology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois.
Yu
Y
Li
Rush Institute for Healthy Aging, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois.
XinQi
X
Dong
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001213:Asian; D002641:Chicago; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D057220:Health Literacy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
Chinese aging; Health Literacy; Health disparity; PINE study.