Assessing Health Literacy of Elderly with Chronic Diseases during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Makassar City, Sulawesi Selatan, Indonesia

Bahtiar Bahtiar, Wiwi Saputri, Rostika Salenda Paseleng, Muh Akbar, Restu Abady
2021 Dunia Keperawatan  
The elderly are vulnerable to experience health problems and physical deterioration characterized by high rates of chronic diseases among the elderly. Health literacy ability becomes crucial for the elderly with chronic diseases to treat and maintain their health. This study was aimed to describe the literacy levels of the elderly with chronic diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic in Makassar. The method of study was a descriptive survey with a cross-sectional study. The research population is
more » ... lderly with chronic diseases in Makassar city, and the samples are 124 elderly with age ≥60 years old and suffering chronic diseases more than six months in two selected sub-district. The research was conducted a cross-sectional survey, and descriptive univariate data analysis was used. The instrument was used Indonesia's health literacy short-form survey questionnaire (HLS-EU-SQ10-IDN). The result of this study reveals that the health literacy levels vary: insufficient criteria by 33.99%, problematic criteria by 49.2%, sufficient criteria by 16.1%, and perfect criteria by 0.8%. The results prove that the health literacy level of the elderly with chronic diseases is insufficient. This study concluded that the dominant level of the health literacy of the elderly with chronic diseases is inadequate and problematic. Health education program to improve their literacy is necessarily improved during the COVID-19 outbreak
doi:10.20527/dk.v9i1.9325 fatcat:f6niob5b6fc5pmikg5ct3fmau4