Social capital and health literacy in Taiwan

Hsieh-Hua Yang^*, Shu-Chen Kuo, Hung-Jen Yang, Jui-Chen Yu

Center for General Education, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei City.
Department of Health Care Administration, Oriental Institute of Technology, New Taipei City.
Department of Industrial Technology Education, National Kaohsiung Normal University, Kaohsiung.
National Science and Technology Museum, Kaohsiung.

DOI: 10.4236/health.2013.55118                

Abstract

The argument of this study is that social capital is a key factor of health literacy. Data came from an island-wide sample. Position generator was adopted to measure social capital. A regression model is constructed to test the social capital which is known as a robust predictor of health literacy after controlling gender, age, education, income, and health communication ability. The results reveal that female, higher education, and better health communication ability are also correlated with health literacy. Implications for public health are discussed.

Keywords

Social Capital; Health Literacy; Taiwan; Area Sampling

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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