Role of Health Literacy, Socioeconomic Status, and Access to Healthcare in Improving Preventive Healthcare Behavior in Islamabad

Abstract

Preventive healthcare practice, incorporating the uptake of vaccinations, routine screening of health, control of food intake, physical exercise, and early medical appointment is widely accepted as the most economical tool of decreasing the pondering of chronic and communicable disease across the globe. Although there have been massive investments in the health infrastructure in the mainstream, there remain pronounced inequalities in the patterns of preventive behavior adoption among populations concerning both the intersecting dimensions of health literacy, socioeconomic status (SES), and access to healthcare services. This paper will analyze the independent and interactive effects of the three determinants in the development of preventive healthcare behavior among Pakistani adults in an urban setting. Quantitative cross-sectional survey design was used in which structured data were obtained in the form of a questionnaire with 250 adult participants who were chosen using stratified random. Health literacy, SES, and healthcare access were measured using validated instruments, the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) adapted scale, a composite index of income, education and occupational class, and the Penchansky and Thomas access dimensions framework, respectively. Preventive behavior was measured as a composite measure of six behavior domains. The analysis of descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations and multiple linear regression were performed in SPSS version 26. Findings demonstrate that preventive behavior scores are significantly and positively related to health literacy, SES, and access to healthcare. The strongest predictor was health literacy (beta = 0.42, p < 0.001), then there is healthcare access (beta = 0.31, p < 0.001) and SES (beta = 0.27, p < 0.01). The combination of the three variables contributed 58.3 percent of the variance of preventive behavior. The researchers conclude that policy action is necessary to improve preventive healthcare behavior by means of coordinated policy efforts on improving health literacy, structural mitigation of socioeconomic obstacles, and increasing access to affordable and acceptable health services. Health policies, community health programs, and health facilities are given recommendations.