Association between health literacy and purpose in life and life satisfaction among health management specialists: a cross-sectional study

Purpose in life is anchored as a goal in national health promotion plans in several countries. Health literacy is the ability to find, understand, use, and evaluate health-related information; this ability has been investigated in terms of its effect on health outcomes and is said to play a critical role in health promotion. In the context of national health promotion, the effect of health literacy on purpose in life and life satisfaction remains unclear; therefore, this study aims to determine the effect of health literacy. A cross-sectional study was conducted on Japanese health management specialists (N = 1920). Health literacy was measured using the Communicative and Critical Health Literacy scale. Purpose in life and life satisfaction were measured using the Ikigai-9 scale and a Likert scale, respectively. We analyzed the associations between health literacy and purpose in life and life satisfaction with regression analyses. Age, sex, income, education, marital status, psychological stress, and diseases as present illness were adjusted in the statistical models. Our multiple linear regressions indicated that health literacy was significantly associated with purpose in life (beta = 0.199, p < 0.001), after adjusting for covariates (age, sex, income, education, marital status, psychological factor, and disease status). Life satisfaction was also significantly associated with health literacy (beta = 0.126, p < 0.001). Health literacy is associated with purpose in life and life satisfaction among specialists in health management. Health literacy plays a critical role in lifestyle-related disease prevention and health promotion. Interventions to improve health literacy may be warranted in the context of national health promotion.