Objective: During the COVID pandemic, targeted test and trace policies to identify positive cases and measures to isolate them have led to public stigma towards these people. The literature suggests that feelings of stigma are higher in people with lower health literacy, while health literacy tends to be lower among older adults. This study examined relationship between health literacy and perceived stigma toward positive COVID cases.

Methods: Existing measures were adapted to assess perceived stigma specific to COVID. Both general health literacy and COVID-specific literacy were measured. A questionnaire was placed on an online forum with the only inclusion criterion being adults aged 65+ years. 239 older adults were recruited through community agencies. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and regression.

Results: Generally, stigma was high while health literacy was low. Stigma was positively and mildly correlated with age whereas COVID health literacy was negatively correlated with age. The reverse pattern was observed for educational attainment. COVID health literacy was in turn related to general health literacy. Controlling for age, education and general health literacy, the negative relationship between COVID health literacy and stigma remained statistically significant.

Conclusions: The findings support a connection between health literacy and stigma during the COVID pandemic, although causal inference cannot be made due to the cross-sectional data. Nevertheless, given the positive relationship between general health literacy and COVID health literacy, more research to examine ways to promote health literacy in general in older adults may be beneficial and may reduce stimga in future pandemics.

Authors:
Sheung-Tak Cheng, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

About the Presenter(s)
Professor Sheung-Tak Cheng is a University Professor/Principal Lecturer at The Education University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong

See this presentation on the full schedule – Thursday Schedule

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