TAHAP LITERASI KESIHATAN GOLONGAN LELAKI KUMPULAN PENDAPATAN B40 DAN M40 DI JOHOR BAHRU (Health Literacy Status of B40 and M40 Income Bracket Men in Johor Bahru)

Abstract

Health literacy plays an important role in the globalized world.  Health literacy skills may be necessary to empower individuals and communities in their management of health, especially concerning chronic diseases. Men specifically could benefit from health literacy skills as statistics shown that men have shorter life expectancy and higher risk of suffering from non-communicable diseases, compared to women. This is even important among those of low and medium income bracket because of the financial limitations to cover the cost of health care. This research therefore aims to measure health literacy status among men and explore selected demographic factors that may correlate with their health literacy level. Health literacy model adapted from Sorensen et al. (2012) was utilised as the theoretical framework for this study. Using questionnaire as research instrument, a survey was conducted on 168 Malay male respondents from medium and low income (M40 and B40) group. This research found that majority of respondents have low health literacy, in which 45.9% (N=77) belongs to the problematic group while 32.1% (N=54) is categorized as inadequate. Findings also showed a significant relationship between health literacy and education level (r = 0.250**) as well as household income (r = 0.318**). This study however found no significant relationship between frequency of media usage (r = -0.014) as well as BMI (r = 0.057) with health literacy.