Maternal Health Literacy Affects COVID-19 Preventive Behavior in Surabaya, Indonesia

SUMMARY
Introduction: There is some evidence that people
equipped with health literacy skills can help them
navigate the health system and various disease
prevention decisions and management decisions. It
is paramount to implement infection (COVID-19)
prevention. Mothers are considered the axes of family
structure. T hey have a role in raising, educating
children, caring for the house, and maintaining family
members’ health. This study analyses the correlation
between maternal health literacy (MHC) and
COVID-19 preventive behaviour (CPB) in Surabaya,
Indonesia.
Methods: The study design was correlational with a
cross-sectional approach. The independent variable
was maternal health literacy, while the dependent
variable was the COVID-19 preventive behaviour. The
instrument for measuring MHL was the COVID-19
Literacy Questionnaire adopted from the COVID-19
material from World Health Organization (WHO) and
evaluated COVID-19 preventive behaviour using a
questionnaire developed by the Centers for Disease
Control (CDC) and WHO. The population consisted
of all mothers residing in the Surabaya area, and the
number of samples was 125 by purposive sampling
based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The
collected data was tested using the Spearman rho
analysis test with a confidence interval of 95 % and
alpha (α) = 0.05.
Results: Findings indicate that 77% of respondents
had good MHL, and 23 % had adequate MHL. On the
CPB variable, 54.4 % of respondents had an adequate
CPB, 44 % had good CPB, and 1.6 % had inadequate
CPB. In addition, there was a significant correlation
between maternal health literacy and COVID-19
preventive behaviour (p= 0.01; r= 0.601).
Conclusion: Maternal health literacy affects
COVID-19 health behaviour. Further research should
empower women in clean and healthy living behaviour
to prevent COVID-19.
Keywords: COVID-19, health literacy, maternal,
preventive behavior.