Personality and health literacy among community-dwelling older adults living in Japan.

BACKGROUND Previous studies have demonstrated that health behaviours may be one of the major mechanisms underlying the relationship between personality and health outcomes. Such health behaviours may be established by consciousness toward one's health that include health literacy. Thus, this study aimed to explore the relationship between health literacy and its correlates, including personality, among community-dwelling older adults. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study with 683 older individuals (aged 60-84 years; 326 men and 357 women). A questionnaire was used to assess health literacy, personality, socioeconomic status, health status, and lifestyles. Health literacy was measured using the Communicative and Critical Health Literacy Scale, which is a self-report questionnaire comprising five items assessing degrees of health literacy. The Big Five personality traits were measured using the Japanese version of the Ten-Item Personality Inventory. Other variables were measured as factors associated with health literacy, including age, gender, education, subjective economic status, social isolation, chronic diseases, functional capacity, smoking and drinking. RESULTS Multiple regression analysis showed that education (β = 0.10), subjective economic status (β = -0.09), social isolation (β = -0.08), functional dependence (β = -0.22), neuroticism, (β = -0.08), extraversion (β = 0.10), openness (β = 0.17), and conscientiousness (β = 0.09) were independently and significantly associated with health literacy (coefficient of determination = 0.28). CONCLUSIONS This study found significant and independent associations of personality, socioeconomic status, and health status with health literacy. These results may help facilitate the development of efficient strategies to improve health status by promoting health literacy in community-dwelling older adults.