Researches on food literacy and medication literacy: focused on chronic disease patients

Abstract

The objective of this study was to measure food literacy and medication literacy among Korean adults and to explore the low literacy people. Health literacy has been recently regarded as an important factor for health, from which food literacy and medication literacy are derived. Korean government tries to provide the public with food and medication information through special public portal sites. We conducted online surveys from September through November, 2022 among 1,013 adults aged 40-59 years. They obtain main information through TV, web site or SNS from health professionals or lay persons, and family/friends. 28% of non-chronic disease persons and 21.5% of chronic disease patients responded that they had a difficulty in understanding the nutrition information on the food label. Moreover, some hypertension patients could not understand the nutrition information on the food label for discriminating the food with high sodium content. 37% of the persons without chronic disease and 27.5% with chronic disease also responded that they had a difficulty in understanding the medication information on the medicine package. When we presented a medicine package and asked to find the medication information, about 39% of the patients with chronic disease could not answer the maximum dose. Age and low education were the risk factors for low literacy for food and medication information. Patient-focused care emphasizes the empowerment of the chronic disease patients, but, this study revealed that some chronic patients had low food or medication literacy. More researches and policy developments are required to improve health literacy and to support the patients of low food or medication literacy in the medical institutions or in the community.