Association of health literacy and SocioDemographic factors among Malaysian Adults: Findings from National Health Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2019

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of health literacy levels among Malaysian adults and associated socio-demographic markers of communities with limited health literacy. A population-based self-administered survey using the HLS-M-Q18 instrument was conducted as part of Malaysia’s National Health Morbidity Survey (NHMS, 2019). Responses from 8,933 respondents were included for analysis. The nationwide survey utilized a twostage stratified random sampling method. The health literacy score was divided into three levels; limited, sufficient and excellent. The Association between the health literacy level of the Malaysian population and the demographic characteristics was analysed with a multinomial logistic regression model. Complex sampling multinomial logistic regression models were used for estimations where the dependent variable has more than two nominal categories that are discrete, while the independent variables are of Likert scales. Comparison between the Malaysian population having limited health literacy level and sufficient health literacy level shows significant association in specific demographic characteristics and level of health literacy; gender, age group, education level and ethnicity. Comparison between the Malaysian population having limited health literacy and excellent health literacy shows significant association in terms of age group, education level and ethnicity. The study results highlighted the significant association of social demographic characteristics contributing to the health literacy level among populations. It is recommended that public health interventions and health promotion strategies are developed based on the existing sociodemographic disparities among the population.