Health Communication for Displaced Populations| Knowledge, Attitude, and Behavior About COVID-19: The Roles of Health Literacy and English Proficiency Among Korean Immigrants in the United States

Abstract

Considering the fast-evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lack of tailored public health information, health literacy and English proficiency are likely to predict knowledge, attitudes, and behavior (KAB) about COVID-19 prevention among linguistic minority populations, including immigrants. An online survey (N = 104) was conducted to investigate how health literacy and English proficiency predicted KAB about COVID-19 prevention among Korean immigrants in the United States. Multiple regression analyses showed that health literacy was a significant predictor of knowledge about COVID-19. In contrast, both health literacy and English proficiency were found to be significant predictors of COVID-19 attitudes, controlling for covariates such as age, education, duration of residence in the United States, and household income. Neither health literacy nor English proficiency was a significant predictor of preventive behavior about COVID-19. These findings highlight that providing public health information tailored for lower health literacy and in multiple languages is crucial to promoting the knowledge and positive attitudes of the immigrant population toward infectious disease prevention during pandemics.