Internal Motivation, Perceived Health Competency, and Health Literacy in Primary and Secondary Cancer Prevention

Abstract

<br /> <strong><span style="font-size: small;">Objective: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">The aim of this study was to identify associations of internal motivation, perceived health competency, and health literacy with primary and secondary cancer prevention. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Methods: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">A telephone survey was conducted with a sample of 2,700, 30-69 year olds, proportionally extracted from Gangwon Province, South Korea. The dependent variables were actions in primary and secondary prevention and the explanatory variables were 13 questions in three areas: internal motivation (4 items), perceived health competency (4 items), and health literacy (5 items). </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Result: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Multiple linear regression analysis showed that internal motivation, perceived health competency, and health literacy positively impacted primary prevention after controlling for gender and age. As internal motivation, perceived health competency, and perceived literacy increased by 1 point, primary prevention scores increased by 0.11, 0.11, and 0.07 points, respectively. In addition, logistic regression results for secondary prevention showed that health literacy had a positive impact on secondary behavior. As health literacy increased by 1 point, the odds ratio of the practice of secondary prevention was 1.4 times higher. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Conclusion: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">This study suggests that primary and secondary prevention of cancer </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">are significantly related to intrinsic motivation factors, perceived health competency, and actual health literacy. Health </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">literacy concepts that cover the capacity of health management in comprehensive areas need to be applied to education and promotion for improvement of primary and secondary prevention of cancer. </span></span>