Multi-group Causal Model of Health Literacy and Behaviors on Family Well-being among Thai Adults at Risk of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).

BACKGROUND: We aimed to develop a causal model of family well-being with health literacy (HL) as a mediator and to compare models between male and female spouses in urban and rural communities.

STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional study.

METHODS: The samples included 2000 spouses at risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by stratified randomly sampled in 2018. Data were collected Likert questionnaires with reliability of 0.79-0.93, and analyzed via confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and multi-group structural equation modeling (MSEM).

RESULTS: A causal model for the overall group was consistent with the data. Causal factors had direct effects on health behavior including social norms, positive attitude toward health, psychological capital, and HL (β=0.11, 0.14, 0.30, and 0.41, P<0.05 respectively). Health behavior and positive attitudes towards health had direct effects on family well-being (β=0.36 and 0.42, P<0.05, respectively). All factors could predict health behavior and family well-being with variance of 70% and 50%. Invariance analysis of models showed no difference between male and female spouses. In addition, the mean comparison of latent variables showed that the positive attitudes towards health were lower in women than men. HL and positive attitudes towards health of spouses in urban were lower than in rural communities.

CONCLUSION: Thai adult families in cities were at higher risk with NCDs. Therefore, health providers need to address HL and positive attitude toward health which were the main causal factors.