Association between health literacy and COVID-19 prevention behaviors among pregnant and postpartum women

Abstract Objective To investigate the association between health literacy and COVID-19 prevention behaviors among pregnant and postpartum women in Japan. Methods In this cross-sectional, web-based, self-reported questionnaire survey, we investigated the association between health literacy and COVID-19 prevention behaviors among pregnant and postpartum women in Japan. A multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the association with adjustment for socioeconomic characteristics. Results There were 926 respondents, comprising 368 pregnant and 558 postpartum women. Women with high health literacy scores accounted for 42% of the respondents. This group had a significantly higher proportion of actively adopting preventive behaviors than the low health literacy group (33.5 vs. 25.4%, p = .008). The multivariable logistic regression analysis showed high health literacy was significantly associated with high preventive behaviors scores compared to low health literacy (adjusted odds ratio, 1.66; 95% confidence interval, 1.22–2.27). Conclusion Higher health literacy was significantly associated with a higher proportion of COVID-19 prevention behaviors among women who are pregnant or postpartum.