Associations of health literacy and information sources with health-risk anxiety and protective behaviors

Abstract

Health literacy has been considered an important contributor to health behaviors and health outcomes. However, people with limited health literacy may not be able to adequately utilize health information to protect and improve their health, even when they have access to such information. This study explored the associations of health literacy and the use of information sources with health-risk anxiety and related protective behaviors in the Japanese general public. An online survey was administered to 713 adults who watched or read news online on a daily basis. The questionnaire addressed health literacy, use of information sources (television, newspapers, the Internet, family and friends, and public newsletters), risk perception, risk anxiety, and protective behaviors related to risks. Those with higher levels of health literacy used newspapers and the Internet more frequently and were more likely to adopt protective measures against the health risks. The associations of the use of certain information sources with health-risk anxiety and protective behaviors differed by level of health literacy. In particular, those with lower levels of health literacy may find it difficult to seek and make use of information from the Internet in adopting the appropriate protective measures against health risks.

Keywords:

• Communication Media
• Health behavior
• Health communication
• Health literacy
• Information-seeking behavior
• Risk anxiety
• Risk communication

Disclaimer statement

Contributors HI made substantial contributions to the study conception and design, analysis and interpretation of data, and drafted the article. MK made substantial contributions to the study conception and design, acquisition of data, and interpretation of data. TK made substantial contributions to the study conception and design, interpretation of the data, and supervised the study. All authors revised it critically for intellectual content and approved the final version to be published.

Conflict of interest The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

Ethical approval The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo (#10082).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by JSPS KAKENHI [Grant Number 24390163].

Notes on contributors

Hirono Ishikawa

Author information

Hirono Ishikawa Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Health Communication at School of Public Health, The University of Tokyo. Her primary research interest is in patient-provider communication, with a focus on health literacy and communication skills training in medical education.

Mio Kato

Mio Kato is Assistant Professor in the same department. Her research interests include media communication and entertainment education.

Takahiro Kiuchi

Takahiro Kiuchi is Professor in the same department, and the Director of the University hospital Medical Information Network (UMIN) Center.