Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Resource Management and Consumer Studies, Faculty of Human Ecology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
  • 3 Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
  • 4 Corporate Communication Unit, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Putrajaya 62000, Malaysia
  • 5 Psychology and Human Wellbeing Research Centre, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Malaysia
  • 6 South East Asia Community Observatory (SEACO) & Global Public Health, Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, Subang Jaya 47500, Malaysia
Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2022 Sep 30;19(19).
PMID: 36231818 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph191912520

Abstract

This cross-sectional study examined the relationships of financial literacy (FL) and financial behaviour (FB) with health-related quality of life (HRQOL) during the COVID-19 pandemic among low-income working population (20-60 years old) in Malaysia. A self-administered questionnaire survey was used with HRQOL data were gathered using the EuroQol 5-Dimension 5-Level (EQ-5D-5L) tool. A generalised linear model was employed to examine the hypothesised relationships between the constructs. From 1186 respondents, the majority were employed (73.9%), had a monthly household income of less than RM 2500 (74.5%), and did not have any chronic medical conditions (74.5%). The mean (SD) values of FL, FB, and EQ-5D-5L were 5.95 (1.48), 22.08 (4.79), and 0.96 (0.10), respectively. The results of the adjusted model revealed lower age group, Malay ethnicity, Indian ethnicity, and increased FB score as significant determinants of higher EQ-5D-5L scores. With the addition of the chronic medical condition factor into the saturated model, the lower age group, ethnicity, and no chronic medical condition were significant determinants of higher HRQOL. The effects of FB on QOL were confounded by chronic diseases, implying that interventions that focus on improving FB for those with chronic medical condition may help to improve the QOL among the low-income working population.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.