Effect of high health literacy and the frequency of social activities on preventing disability

OBJECTIVE: This longitudinal study aimed to identify the impact of high health literacy (HL) and participation in more social activities (SA) on preventing the risk of disability among community-dwelling older adults. METHODS: Participants were 3,486 community-dwelling older adults who underwent functional health examinations. Participants were classified into four groups based on High (Low) HL and High (Low) SA. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess the risk of disability over five years among the four groups. RESULTS: During follow-up, 339 patients with disabilities were observed. In the Cox proportional hazards analysis, only High HL and High SA groups were significantly associated with a lower hazard ratio (HR) for disability onset (HR = 0.71, 95% confidence interval = 0.51-0.99). CONCLUSIONS: In community-dwelling older adults, high HL and increased SA effectively reduced the risk of disability compared to low HL and low SA.