Explanatory style differences in health literacy: a survey among young adults in Taiwan

Abstract

Explanatory styles are related to individuals’ positive health management. Everyone interprets and thinks about issues differently; therefore, medical information is understood in different ways. This study explored the relationship of optimistic and positive views on health literacy. A survey method was used to collect information from 342 university students. This study used PLS2.0 and SPSS 18.0 for data analysis. The results indicated that optimists had more accurate self-reported health status and medication-taking and nutritional knowledge than pessimists did. Females had higher scores on health knowledge and medication-taking and nutritional knowledge than males. In addition, female optimists had better performance on self-reported health status and health and medication-taking knowledge than female pessimists did. The major contribution of this study is the confirmation of the effect of explanatory style on health literacy.

Keywords:

• explanatory style
• self-reported health status
• health knowledge
• medication-taking knowledge
• nutrition knowledge

Additional information

Funding

The study is funded by Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan [NSC100-2410-H-231-001-MY2].