Health Literacy among Japanese College Students: Association with Healthy Lifestyle and Subjective Health Status

Abstract

The improvement of health literacy (HL) is a critical issue for college students who are in the transitional period to adulthood and are establishing their subsequent lifestyles. The present study aimed to evaluate the current state of HL among college students and to explore the factors that influence HL. Moreover, it investigated the relationship between HL and health conditions. For this study, the researchers conducted an online survey of college students. The questionnaire consisted of the Japanese version of the 47-item European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q47), which is a self-assessment tool for HL that covers the major health issues of college students and health-related quality of life. The study analyzed 1049 valid responses. Based on the HLS-EU-Q47 total score, 85% of the participants exhibited problematic or unsatisfactory HL levels. Participants who reported high levels of healthy lifestyles obtained high HL scores. High levels of HL were associated with high levels of subjective health. Results from quantitative text analysis suggested that specific mindsets were correlated with high levels of competency in appraising health information among male students. In the future, educational intervention programs for college students need to be established to improve HL levels.

Tobacco and alcohol co‐use: Lifestyle and sociodemographic factors, and personality aspects as potential predictors in the “Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra” cohort

“…This combination was not observed in our sample. healthier lifestyle choices, such as making healthier dietary choices and increasing adequate physical activity levels (Yokoyama et al, 2023), and decreasing risk behaviors, such as smoking and harmful alcohol use (Svendsen et al, 2020). and colleagues stated that they found women to be more likely to co-use tobacco and alcohol, and they hypothesized that women in their sample were wealthier and more socially and financially independent (Ho et al, 2021).…”

“…By contrast, this study found that those who engaged in physical activity above recommended levels were more likely to co‐use tobacco and alcohol. The basis for this finding is unclear because the higher health literacy among upper‐grade university students (Yokoyama et al, 2023) would support healthier lifestyle choices, such as making healthier dietary choices and increasing physical activity (Yokoyama et al, 2023) and decreasing risk behaviors, such as smoking and harmful alcohol use (Svendsen et al, 2020). This combination was not observed in our sample.…”

“…This combination was not observed in our sample. healthier lifestyle choices, such as making healthier dietary choices and increasing adequate physical activity levels (Yokoyama et al, 2023), and decreasing risk behaviors, such as smoking and harmful alcohol use (Svendsen et al, 2020). [Correction added on 16 February 2024, after first online publication: This paragraph has been revised to provide more clarity in this version.…”

Significados y prácticas de salud como ausencia de enfermedad en universitarios

“…Por otra parte, en la presente investigación, la mayoría de los estudiantes catalogan el factor tecnológico como positivo para acceder a información de salud. Lo anterior, es coherente con los resultados de otros estudios (Yokoyama et al, 2023;Chen et al, 2023) sobre la alta consulta de estudiantes en internet para buscar información sobre el manejo de la salud y la prevención de enfermedades.…”

Examining corporate support issues with health literacy as a key factor: The Case of a Hiroshima corporation

“…Currently, research on HL among female workers in Japan is limited, both in comparison with Western countries and other research on HL in Japan. [ 23 24 25 26 ] For this reason, this study aimed to take a Hiroshima company as an example and analyze the influencing factors of HL scores to clarify the issue of the active participation of female employees.…”