. Suneerat Yangyuen; . Chatchada Mahaweerawat; . Sawan Thitisutthi; . Udomsak Mahaweerawat
Volume 11, Issue 3 , March 2021, , Pages 1-6
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Health literacy (HL) is an important role‑play in health risk behaviors such asalcohol drinking and smoking. Inadequate HL in substance use (HLSU) is a barrier to reduce ...
Read More
BACKGROUND: Health literacy (HL) is an important role‑play in health risk behaviors such asalcohol drinking and smoking. Inadequate HL in substance use (HLSU) is a barrier to reduce therisk of alcohol and tobacco use. This study aims to investigate the association of HLSU with alcoholconsumption and tobacco use among Thai adolescents. Hence, the strengthening of HL programintervention may applied to reduce substance abuse among Thai adolescents.MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a cross‑sectional study conducted on 1087 universitystudents studying in three universities located in northeastern area with multistage sampling methodsby geographical areas. The data were collected by self‑administered questionnaire. Multiple logisticregression was applied to determine the effect of HLSU of alcohol consumption and tobacco use.RESULTS: Most adolescents were drinkers (60.7%) and about 20.7% were smokers. Approximately40% of them reported as inadequate HLSU. Adolescents with inadequate HLSU and a high level ofpositive alcohol expectancies and smoking outcome expectancies (SOE) were more likely to drinkalcohol and smoke. Conversely, those who had a high level of negative alcohol drinking and SOEwere less likely to consume alcohol and tobacco.CONCLUSION: Adolescents’ alcohol consumption and tobacco use were influenced by HL, henceimproving adolescents’ HLSU could help prevent or reduce the risk of drinking and smoking behaviors.
