2015 Volume 4 Issue 1 Pages 41-47
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship between health literacy, life events and cervical cancer screening activities of Japanese women in their 20s.
Methods: An anonymous self-administered questionnaire, which included the Health Literacy Scale was conducted on 2,078 working women in their 20s and 30s. Of the 1,233 respondents (response rate: 59.3%), 729 women in their 20s were chosen as the target for this analysis. Univariate analysis was performed to compare subjects scoring below the median on the Health Literacy Scale (“low group”) against those scoring above the median (“high group”).
Results: In comparison to the high group, a significantly higher proportion of those in the low group were high school graduates, were unmarried, had no history of pregnancy, and had no history of medical screening for cervical cancer. The results of the univariate analysis using health literacy as a dependent variable with adjustments for age and academic background revealed odds ratios of 1.75 (95% confidence interval 1.09–2.82) for history of marriage, 1.82 (95% confidence interval 1.07–3.11) for history of pregnancy, and 1.85 (95% confidence interval 1.36–2.51) for history of medical screening for cervical cancer.
Conclusions: Encouragement by nurses during life events and medical screening can potentially improve health literacy.
