DOI : https://doi.org/10.56338/jphp.v6i3.9456

Level of Health Literacy with Multiborbidity; Cross-Sectional Study in the Elderly

Rahmawati (1), Sri Mulyani (2), Fitri Yanti (3), Niken Kuswary (4), Nurul Syahriani Salahuddin (5), Andi Ulfiana Fitri (6)
(1) Master of Public Health, Universitas Mandala Waluya, Kendari, Indonesia
(2) Bachelor of Public Health, Mandala Waluya University, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia
(3) Bachelor of Public Health, Mandala Waluya University, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia
(4) Medical Informatics Study Program, Tamalatea University Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
(5) Department of Health Administration and Policy, Faculty of Public Health, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
(6) Health Administration, State University of Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
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Rahmawati, Sri Mulyani, Fitri Yanti, Niken Kuswary, Nurul Syahriani Salahuddin, & Andi Ulfiana Fitri. (2026). Level of Health Literacy with Multiborbidity; Cross-Sectional Study in the Elderly. Journal of Public Health and Pharmacy, 6(3), 476–482. https://doi.org/10.56338/jphp.v6i3.9456
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Introduction: Older adults are particularly vulnerable to multimorbidity, underscoring the importance of adequate health literacy for maintaining health and managing chronic diseases. Health-related competencies range from functional literacy, which involves basic skills for handling health information, to communicative and critical literacy, which enable individuals to interact with, interpret, critically assess, and apply information in more complex health contexts. Inadequate health literacy may reduce the capacity to manage chronic conditions and potentially contribute to the development or progression of multimorbidity. This study assessed the relationships between functional, communicative, and critical health literacy and multimorbidity among older adults.


Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted among 44 older adults using total (exhaustive) sampling. Data were collected in June 2023 through structured questionnaire-based interviews. Fisher’s exact tests were used to assess associations.


Results: Functional health literacy (p = 0.018), communicative health literacy (p = 0.010), and critical health literacy (p = 0.007) were significantly associated with multimorbidity. Health information access (p = 0.001) and family support (p = 0.023) were also significantly associated with multimorbidity, whereas education, sex, and income were not.


Conclusion: Multimorbidity among older adults participating in the Prolanis program in Besu Village was significantly associated with functional, communicative, and critical health literacy. The findings suggest that chronic disease management may benefit from efforts to strengthen health literacy and access to reliable health information. However, causality cannot be established from this cross-sectional study and requires confirmation in longitudinal and intervention research.

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