Taking Lutein to Prevent Eye Diseases: A Comparison Study of Employed and Unemployed Based on Health Belief Model

• Main Authors: FAN, CHANG-CHING, 范景章
• Other Authors: Pan, Feng- Chuan
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/55y85n

碩士 === 大仁科技大學 === 製藥科技研究所 === 104 === Equity in access to medicines had become one of the major concerned in the medication. This issue had prevailed in the marriage, sex, job opportunity, education, medication and many societal disciplines and practices to prevent the minorities from being unfairly treated. However, few, if any, research had looked into the research model for the minority may differ from the main stream. Based on Health Belief Model (HBM), the current research compared the applicability of HBM both in the population of the employed and the unemployed, in particular when expose to the threats of eye diseases. Purpose of this research was to identify how a research on the minority may differ from the main stream under the same theoretical background. 1075 valid samples were conveniently taken from general adult population around the island of Taiwan. The sample was divided into two groups based on the respondent’s self-administered questionnaires, 356 unemployed and 719 employed. The survey showed that the unemployed respondents relied most the TV program (25.72%) and the healthcare institutes as the source of healthcare information, whereas the employed group relied on the internet-web (27.96%) and the TV programs the most. Two groups regression analysis indicated that HBM as a theory had a better explanation for the unemployed (R2=0.254) than the employed (R2=0.21), however, the main predictor was the perceived benefit of taking lutein for eye disease prevention. It was the same for both unemployed (β=0.491) and employed (β=0.408), followed by perceived barrier of lutein in a negative way. The threats of eye diseases, both susceptibility and severity, had no significant impacts. The study implied that the health belief model seems to be appropriate for those unemployed in the captioned behavior, and the study wondered that the HBM would be a better measurement for those minorities. The study provided an evidence for the applicability of health belief model in the comparison study of employed and unemployed persons in lutein taking behavior. Although the unemployed persons were rather economically inferior to those employed, the healthcare institutes should carefully organize relevant eye-care promotion program and deliver through well-organized media to foster the national’s continuously taking lutein to strengthen the eye-sight.