Personality and health literacy among community‐dwelling older adults living in Japan

Abstract

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated that health behaviours may be one of the major mechanisms underlying the relationship between personality and health outcomes. Such health behaviours may be established by consciousness toward one's health that include health literacy. Thus, this study aimed to explore the relationship between health literacy and its correlates, including personality, among community-dwelling older adults. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study with 683 older individuals (aged 60-84 years; 326 men and 357 women). A questionnaire was used to assess health literacy, personality, socioeconomic status, health status, and lifestyles. Health literacy was measured using the Communicative and Critical Health Literacy Scale, which is a self-report questionnaire comprising five items assessing degrees of health literacy. The Big Five personality traits were measured using the Japanese version of the Ten-Item Personality Inventory. Other variables were measured as factors associated with health literacy, including age, gender, education, subjective economic status, social isolation, chronic diseases, functional capacity, smoking and drinking. Results: Multiple regression analysis showed that education (β = 0.10), subjective economic status (β = −0.09), social isolation (β = −0.08), functional dependence (β = −0.22), neuroticism, (β = −0.08), extraversion (β = 0.10), openness (β = 0.17), and conscientiousness (β = 0.09) were independently and significantly associated with health literacy (coefficient of determination = 0.28). Conclusions: This study found significant and independent associations of personality, socioeconomic status, and health status with health literacy. These results may help facilitate the development of efficient strategies to improve health status by promoting health literacy in community-dwelling older adults. heart disease) than young people, they have more opportunities to use medical care services. Therefore, there is a greater need to utilise health information through communication with medical professionals, and the use of prescriptions, compared to young people. Thus, health literacy is particularly essential for older adults, 1,2 as health literacy involves collecting information necessary for maintaining one's health (e.g., information on the

Relationship between Personality and Mortality among Japanese Older Adults: A 14-Year Longitudinal Study

“…Furthermore, this tendency is closely related to health literacy [ 41 ]. Openness is also closely correlated to health literacy [ 42 ].…”

Health Literacy and Personality Traits in Two Types of Family Structure—A Cross-Sectional Study in China

“…Health literacy can be an independent factor influencing health outcomes. Those with a low level of health literacy are related to poor health outcomes such as insufficient use of healthcare services, high hospitalization rates, and high mortality rates according to some studies ( DeWalt et al, 2004 ; Baker et al, 2007 ; Huang et al, 2017 ; Iwasa and Yoshida, 2020 ). In addition, it is difficult for people with low health literacy to update their health knowledge or obtain the best medical advice from health experts to change their health-related lifestyle.…”

“…Some studies reported that socioeconomic status (SES) had closely links to health literacy ( Adler and Newman, 2002 ; Bonaccorsi et al, 2019 ). SES may become a predictor of health literacy ( Iwasa and Yoshida, 2020 ).…”

Longitudinal association between personality traits and homebound status in older adults: results from the National Health and Aging Trends Study

“…Previous studies have reported that these personality traits have been shown to predict multiple health risk factors that are related to homebound status [ 13 , 14 ]. In terms of physical health, personality traits were associated with functional ability [ 15 ], cognitive decline, chronic diseases [ 16 ], and pain [ 17 , 18 ]. For example, evidence suggests that older adults with low conscientiousness and high neuroticism tended to engage in fewer physical activities [ 19 ], have poorer physical function [ 20 ], higher risk of falling [ 21 ] and frailty [ 22 ].…”

“…In terms of mental health, personality traits were associated with depression and anxiety. For instance, older adults with high neuroticism were more likely to experience negative emotions and present depressive symptoms [ 16 , 18 , 25 , 26 ]. Lower extraversion and conscientiousness were significantly associated with the presence and severity of depression [ 27 ].…”