@2024 Afarand., IRAN

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ISSN: 2383-2150    Journal of Education and Community Health 2019;6(3):161-167

Background
Health literacy is the extent, to which one is able to acquire, interpret, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate decisions [1].
Previous Studies
… [2-7]. Health literacy has now been introduced as a global issue and debate [8]. According to the World Health Organization, health literacy plays a central role in determining health inequalities, both in rich and poor countries [9]. … [10-13]. Health literacy is now considered by policy makers as one of the essential tools for promoting community health and enhancing the quality of health care services due to its important role in decision making in health related fields. Some researchers believe that health literacy is a stronger predictor of health than variables, such as age, income, employment status, education level, and race [14].
Aim(s)
The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of adult health literacy in Neyshabur.
Research type
The present study is a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study.
Research society, place and time
This study was carried out to determine the level of health literacy in the population of 18-65 years old in Neyshabur city in 2016-17.
Sampling method and number
Since the target group was adults and could be easily accessed, 400 subjects were recruited through a convenience sampling method from Neyshabur city. Neyshabur has 11 comprehensive health service centers and each center has two covered health bases with the population of approximately 2,500 cases based on network expansion divisions. In this study, 40 people were selected from the population covered by each center (approximately equal from each base). Inclusion criteria included reading and writing literacy and Iranian citizenship, and exclusion criteria included cognitive and psychological disorders, acute visual and hearing impairment, and incomplete completion of the questionnaire. … [15]
Used devices&materials
Data were collected by attending centers and completing questionnaires. The questionnaires were completed by self-report and all individuals were asked to answer the questions with complete honesty and it was ensured that all the information requested in the questionnaire was used confidentially. Data collection tools included demographic information questionnaire and HELIA questionnaire of the urban population aged 18-65 years, which its validity and reliability were approved by Montazeri et al. [16]. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS 16 software. Descriptive statistics, such as absolute and relative frequency distributions as well as center tendency and measures of dispersion, such as mean and standard deviation were used to describe the individual-social characteristics and Chi-square test was used for data analysis.
Findings by Text
400 adults were included in the study and 15 were excluded due to incomplete completion of the questionnaire. The mean age of the subjects was 34.61 ±10.69 years and 59.6% were female and 40.4% were male. 9.9% of the subjects had a university degree, 26.5% had a diploma, 34.6% had a secondary school education and 29.1% had primary education. 49.6% were housewives and 35.5% were employed.In terms of health information source, 213 subjects (55.3%) used physicians and staff of centers, 65 subjects (16.9%) used radio and television, 65 subjects (16.9%) used internet, 16 subjects (4.1%) used friends, 11 subjects (2.8%) used booklets and 11 subjects (2.8%) used satellite.The mean score of health literacy was 49.99 ±23.16 and most of them had inadequate and insufficient level of health literacy (table 1).In addition, in the evaluation of health literacy dimensions, the highest frequency of desirable health literacy was found in understanding, reading, decision making, evaluation and access dimensions, respectively (Table 2).Health literacy level was significantly correlated with participants' demographic characteristics, including age, gender, education level and job status (p <0.05; Table 3).
Main comparison to the similar studies
The results of this study showed that the level of health literacy in adults was not desirable. The study by Javadzadeh et al. also showed that more than 50% of people had borderline or inadequate health literacy [17]. The Tehrani Banihashemi et al. study in five cities of Iran showed that 56.6% of people had inadequate health literacy and only 28.1% had adequate level of health literacy [18]. The results of various studies in the regions of the world also showed a wide range of inadequate health literacy; for example, in the study by Van Wagner et al., inadequate and borderline health literacy was reported in 11.4% of adults in the United Kingdom [19]. … [20-33].
Suggestions
It is suggested that similar studies in other age groups be used to extract the results of these studies and extract the factors that influence health literacy in designing effective interventions to promote health literacy.
Limitations
One of the limitations of this study was the lack of attention to skills, such as speaking and listening in the participants in the study.
Conclusions
Adult health literacy levels in the Neyshabur are inadequate and the majority of people have inadequate and insufficient health literacy.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their gratitude to all who participated in this research.
Conflict of interest
None declared.
Ethical Permissions
This article is extracted from a research approved by the Neyshabur University of Medical Sciences (ID: MB1) (Ethics Code: IR.NUMS.REC.1395.5).
Funding Sources
This research was funded by the Vice Chancellor for Research of Neyshabur School of Medical Sciences.

TABLES and CHARTS

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