Community members’ interaction with health professionals and health literacy under one health approach in selected wards in Tanzania: The Nexus
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Date
2018
Authors
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Publisher
Moshi University College
Abstract
Health care providers are a community’s trusted source of health information and can
impact on health literacy. However, their effectiveness depends very much on how health
care providers recognize and respond to patients’ information and communication needs.
This article from a cross –sectional study discusses the influence of the community
members’ interaction with health professionals (CMIWHP) on health literacy (HL) under
One Health Approach in selected wards in Morogoro, Tanzania. It specifically:- (i)
assessed HL of the people in the study area, (ii) assessed CMIWHP, and; (iii) assessed the
association/linkages (nexus) between CMIWHP and HL levels. Data was collected using a
structured questionnaire administered through a Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing
(CAPI) electronic platform from 1440 respondents obtained through multistage sampling
procedure, 80 focus group discussions’ participants and 16 key informant interviewees.
Indexes of score were constructed to measure CMIWHP and HL respectively. A chi-square
test of independence was used to establish the association/linkages (nexus) between
CMIWHP and HL. IBM-SPSS v.20 analysed quantitative data while qualitative data were
organized into themes on specific objectives to back up findings. The study revealed, about
one third of the respondents (32.9%) with adequate HL, moderate HL (30.8%) and
majority with inadequate HL (36.3%). The results further indicate that only 17.5% (95%
CI:15.0 to 19.9) had high CMIWHP, 42.5% (95% CI:39.5 to 45.9) with medium CMIWHP
and the majority 40.0% (95% CI:37.2 to 43.1) had low CMIWHP. Chi-square results
indicate a significant association between CMIWHP and HL, χ(2)=168.593, p=.000,
phi=.342 It is concluded that CMIWHP significantly associates/links to HL levels, but with
a medium effect . It is recommended that effective interventions should be established to
enable further health care providers recognition and responses to patients’ information
and communication needs.
Description
Keywords
Patients-providers interaction, Health literacy, Patient-centered care, Tanzania
Citation
Muhanga, M.I and Malungo, J.R. (2018). Community members’ interaction with health professionals and health literacy under one health approach in selected wards in Tanzania: The Nexus Journal of Co-operative and Business Studies (JCBS) Vol. 3, Issue 2,, 1-39