Psychological and cognitive determinants of the health literacy on soon-to-be-aged and older adults: a systematic review

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to provide an evidence-based review of psychological and cognitive determinants of health literacy (HL) on soon-to-be-aged and older adults. HL is considered by the Office of Surgeon General of United States Department of Health and Human Services as one of the four public health priorities. Some researchers advocated that limited HL is the first step on the pathways to poor health outcomes. However, systematic reviews on psychological and cognitive determinants of HL which affected the health outcomes are inadequate. Six academic electronic database for articles published from 1990 through 2010 were searched. The articles were limited to English language, full text and soon-to-be-aged and older adults aged 50 or over. The searching terms included health literacy, psychology, cognition, factor, association, relationship, soon-to-be-aged, older adult, geriatric etc. Nineteen articles met the inclusion criteria, most studies demonstrated the positive relationship between HL and psycho-determinants (self-efficacy; attitude or belief; perceptions; motivation and intention) and cognitive determinants (cognitive function). Most of the psychological and cognitive determinants of Paasche-Orlow and Wolf’s model related to HL in this review. Three plausible theories explaining the mechanism between HL and health outcomes were suggested.