Health literacy and cancer screening behaviors among community-dwelling female adults in Taiwan

Effects of Mobile Application Program (App)-Assisted Health Education on Preventive Behaviors and Cancer Literacy among Women with Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia

“…Cancer-related knowledge and cancer literacy are important for the cancer population; having adequate knowledge results in appropriate actions, whereas a lack of knowledge leads to inappropriate actions [ 29 , 30 ]. Health education interventions were significant in terms of improving CCa literacy, self-efficacy, and taking actual activities [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 31 , 32 ]. Similarly, the present study showed that repeated health education interventions could be valuable and had positive effects on the change of behavior, partial self-efficacy of behavior, and CCa literacy among Taiwanese women with CIN.…”

“…For females, a cancer diagnosis might provide a teachable moment for health behavior change in the period immediately following diagnosis [ 1 ]. Furthermore, health education interventions were significant in terms of improving knowledge and perceptions and increasing the self-efficacy of women with regards to cervical cancer and screening [ 2 ]; those with inadequate health literacy were more likely to undergo irregular cervical cancer screening [ 3 ], and married women’s knowledge levels about cervical cancer and Pap smear screening were increased as their self-efficacy level, and health literacy level increased [ 4 ]. In Taiwan, a cervical cancer screening program for women over 30 years of age, who are eligible for one free Pap smear annually, had decreased 69.5% age-standardized incidence rate of invasive cervical cancer and 70.9% age-standardized mortality rate of cervical cancer since 1995, but the screening coverage was only 50.4% in 2019 [ 5 ].…”

“…In Taiwan, a cervical cancer screening program for women over 30 years of age, who are eligible for one free Pap smear annually, had decreased 69.5% age-standardized incidence rate of invasive cervical cancer and 70.9% age-standardized mortality rate of cervical cancer since 1995, but the screening coverage was only 50.4% in 2019 [ 5 ]. Women with inadequate health literacy tended to not follow the Pap smear routine screening [ 3 ]. In Taiwan, the coverage rate of National Health insurance (NHI) was 99.9%, and the universal service coverage index (SCI) was 87.0% which was only lower than Canada according to the WHO report [ 6 ].…”

Review of interactive digital solutions improving health literacy of personal cancer risks in the general public

“…Other authors have already emphasised the large potential cancer risk calculators have to provide a public health benefit by educating individuals about their risks, and hence encouraging preventive health behaviors [32].This seems particularly important considering that there are studies linking low health literacy with poor appreciation of health risk analyses and even inadequate screening participation [33]. This, in turn, suggests a large potential for development and utilization of applications in secondary prevention, which could be an interesting field of future research.…”

Colorectal cancer literacy and related factors in northeast of Iran: A cross‐sectional study

“…22,23 Therefore, HL and individual empowerment can be important determinants factors on the rate of CRC screening. 24,25 Empowerment is a positive, dynamic, and multidimensional concept in cancer prevention and treatment 26 and helps to encourage people to undergo cancer screening. The aim of this study was to determine and evaluate CRCL and its related factors in Torbat Heydarieh, northeastern Iran.…”