Association Between Health Literacy and BMI: A Cross-Sectional Study of Suburban Adult Population in Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh is experiencing heightened incidences of obesity among its urban population. This study investigated the relationship between health literacy and body mass index (BMI) among the suburban adult population in the southwestern region of Bangladesh. Data were collected from 196 random participants. Inferential statistics and multinomial logistic regression were used to analyze the data. The BMI was calculated using the World Health Organization standard, and a health literacy index was constructed using the principal component analysis. Results obtained from the relative risk ratio suggested that a higher level of health literacy directly correlates with a reduction of the obesity, overweight, and underweight categories. The health literacy indicators, including healthy behavior (0.38, p<0.01), nutrition knowledge (0.47, p<0.10), and preventive care knowledge (0.47, p<0.05), significantly influenced BMI. Furthermore, years of schooling have a substantial negative effect on the underweight category (0.71, p<0.01). The government should launch health literacy campaigns at all levels of education and promote the campaigns through social and mass media. A longitudinal study on nationally representative samples should be carried out to assess the impact of health literacy campaigns on the overall health and well-being of the Bangladeshi population.

Association between health literacy and Framingham risk score

“…www.nature.com/scientificreports/ Tajdar et al argued that the risk of having components of metabolic syndrome such as obesity, diabetes, and high BP for the subjects with insufficient HL is 1.6 times of those with sufficient HL 27 . According to a study conducted in Bangladesh, higher HL is associated with lower BMI 28 . In addition, Stewart et al found that lower HL was associated with greater nicotine dependence, less knowledge about the health risks related to smoking, and less perceived risk 29 , indicating the significance of preventing CVD among young adults using a health promotion approach to eliminate and modify risk factors and adopt a healthy lifestyle.…”

Impact of conditional cash transfer on health outcome of expectant mothers in Bangladesh

“…In addition, this program should consider other healthcare services like monthly health checkups, supplementary nutrition and health-related advice during pregnancy, as these healthcare services are positively associated with improvement of maternal health and reduction of maternal mortality. Alongside the cash transfer program, a health literacy program should be initiated to teach the targeted group on proper healthcare services (Islam et al ., 2022). The authors also prescribe a joint partnership of the government and nongovernment institutions for running the CCT program at the mass level all over Bangladesh.…”