Effectiveness of a health literacy enhancement program for caregivers of dependent older persons in a community of the Northern Part, Thailand

Abstract

© 2020, Mahidol University - ASEAN Institute for Health Development. All rights reserved. Caregivers play an important role in helping dependent older persons in their daily activities. Caregivers with advanced health literacy are able to apply their healthcare practices skillfully and search for quality information that will supplement their caregiving skills and improve older persons’ quality of life. Many previous researches have shown that caregivers of the elderly do not have enough health literacy, which directly affects the quality of the care they provide. This research aims to assess the effectiveness of a health literacy enhancement program for caregivers of dependent older persons. A quasi-experimental study design was used with an intervention group (n = 22) and a control group (n = 22). The total sample size was 44. The intervention group received the health literacy enhancement program for 12 weeks, during which the researcher conducted workshops and a weekly three-hour training session covering important topics. The results showed that the mean score of the health literacy and caregiving behavior for dependent older persons of the intervention group was higher than the control group after the program, and that the difference was statistically significant (p<.001). The better scores were the result of the program’s active learning activities in which the learners participated and learned to share their knowledge among group members. In summary, the findings suggest a health literacy enhancement program should be used to promote health literacy and change caregiving behavior for dependent older persons in a community.