Role of health literacy in the prevention of emerging and re-emerging diseases: medical students' perception

10.30207/AHLA.202312.0024

Soe Moe；Han Ni；Mila Nu Nu Htay；Adinegara Lutfi Abas

emerging diseases ； health literacy ； malaysia ； medical students ； prevention ； qualitative ； re-emerging diseases

The Proceeding of the 9th AHLA International Health Literacy Conference: Health Literacy and Social Resilience

2023（2023 / 12 / 01）

25 - 25

英文

Background: Emerging and re-emerging diseases are one of the major public health concerns worldwide. Medical students should acknowledge the importance of health literacy (HL) and effectively promote HL to community especially in the context of disease prevention and control measures. Objectives: This pilot study aims to explore undergraduate medical students' perception on the health literacy for the prevention and control of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Method: This qualitative pilot study was conduct as a secondary data analysis of students' responses to pre-lecture preparation questions for the topic of emerging and re-emerging diseases in the undergraduate medical programme. The qualitative answers of pre-lecture preparation questions were extracted from the Google form and analyzed as thematic analysis by using RQDA software. Results: A total of 18 students' qualitative answers were analyzed and five salient themes emerged in the findings. (1) Importance of HL in community, (2) Benefits of competent HL in community, (3) Role of HL in disease prevention, (4) Strategies to improve HL in community, and (5) Suggest focus on HL promotion activities. The students appreciated the benefits and important of HL especially for the infectious diseases' prevention and control measures. Strategies to improve HL in community should initiate from the school health education, and further developed to social-media, mass-media, community campaigns, while collaborating with non-governmental organizations. HL promotion activities should encourage self-education, critical thinking, and utilization of credible sources. Students considered that underprivilege and low-income population should be targeted it these interventions. Conclusion: Medical students appreciated the importance of HL for the disease prevention and control and suggested educational interventions, campaigns for the promotion of HL in community.