@2024 Afarand., IRAN

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ISSN: 2383-2150    Journal of Education and Community Health 2019;6(4):239-245

Background
Health literacy includes not only the ability to read but also a set of complicated skills. Health literacy is important for understanding health messages and choosing the appropriate decision.
Previous Studies
… [1-10]. Low level of maternal health literacy during lactation will have direct and indirect effects on infant health. Direct effects may include non-adherence to indications or medication errors and indirect effects may include chronic diseases, increased health care costs, low physical activity, and overweight [11-13]. In contrast, promoting health literacy can lead to improved neurological status, resistance against diseases, appropriate physical development, and enhanced maternal and child emotional bonding [14]. In Iran, comprehensive health centers play an important role in maternal health literacy, as breastfeeding mothers need to be continuously connected to comprehensive health centers in order to receive information about breastfeeding by controlling and testing newborns, they can prevent serious complications in the future by making the right decisions.
Aim(s)
The aim of this study was to determine the level of health literacy of mothers with infants who referred to urban health centers of Guilan.
Research type
This research was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study
Research society, place and time
This research was carried out on 253 mothers with infants who referred to urban health centers covered by the Guilan University of Medical Sciences for receiving routine care in 2018.
Sampling method and number
… [14]. Morgan's and Cochran formula were used to determine sample size and using random sampling method, 253 breastfeeding mothers in health centers of the East Guilan were selected for study.
Used devices&materials
The Health Literacy for Iranian Adults (HELIA) tool as the first local questionnaire to measure health literacy in Iran was used. The Cronbach's alpha of HELIA dimensions was 0.72 to 0.89, and its reliability has been confirmed. Also, in the Haeri Mehrizi et al. study to determine the fit indices in confirmatory factor analysis and HELIA reliability by provinces, good values have been reported for Guilan province [16]. In order to assess the reliability of the questionnaire, a pilot study was conducted on 4 cases of the considered population and its alpha coefficient was calculated to be 0.76. Finally, these cases were included in the overall sample. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 19 software using Central tendency and dispersion, including mean, median, standard deviation and relative frequency. The normality of the data distribution was first evaluated by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and non-normal distribution of data was confirmed. Therefore, nonparametric tests, such as Spearman’s coefficient, Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests were used for data analysis.
Findings by Text
The mean age of mothers was 29.29 ± 5.19 years (range, 18-45 years). 42.3% of the mothers had diploma, 80.2% were unemployed, 57.7% had a child and 81.8% of them had planned pregnancy. There was a significant difference between the mean score of mothers’ health literacy and educational level, but the mean score of mothers' health literacy was not significantly different in terms of number of children and type of pregnancy (Table 1).There was a significant positive correlation between mothers' education level and their health literacy (p <0.001, r = 0.206). The mean score of maternal health literacy was 72.33 ±13.04 with minimum score of 69 and maximum score of 162 and the results of four dimensions, including access, reading, comprehension, evaluation, decision-making and use of health information were obtained inadequate, not sufficient, adequate and excellent (Table 2). The most common sources of health and disease information among mothers were asking from doctors and healthcare staff (68.8%), Internet (42.3%), radio and television (28.1%), asking friends and acquaintances (22.5%), social networks, like Telegram (19.4%), booklets and educational and commercial brochures (8.3%), newspapers and magazines (3.6%), Interactive voice response (0.8%), and unknown (0.4%), respectively.
Main comparison to the similar studies
... [17-18]. Contrary to various studies that considered age and gender as influential factors in health literacy [19-23], no significant relationship was found between the two variables in the present study. Similar to the study by Khodabakhshi et al. [24], Carthery-Goulart et al. [25], Bashirian & Esmaeilpour-Zanjani [26], and Kharazi et al. [27], there was a significant positive relationship between maternal education and occupation with health literacy. Skeens et al. reported that low level of education and low income are factors contributing to the decline in health literacy, but they also believed that higher education is not a reason to raise health literacy, for example, they may forget to convert teaspoons to milliliters [28]. Gerayllo et al. also stated that education is effective on health literacy, and people with higher education are looking to solve health issues in their lives. However, it cannot be concluded that education enhances health literacy because they are completely different concepts [29]. … [30-39].
Suggestions
It is suggested to conduct similar studies in areas with low level of welfare as well as sources of information on health and diseases to use their results as determinant factors in maternal health literacy.
Limitations
This research had some limitations, including the self-report data collection, which causes recall bias.
Conclusions
The level of health literacy in mothers with infants is desirable, but it depends on various factors and can change over time.
Acknowledgments
The authors are thankful to Ms. Elaheh Rafiei, the Research Advisory Unit of Guilan University of Medical Sciences, who assisted us in promoting the quality of this research and the extracted article.
Conflict of interest
None
Ethical Permissions
This study was approved by the Guilan University of Medical Sciences (ethics code: IR.GUMS.REC.1395.268).
Funding Sources
This article was extracted from a research (95080815) supported by the Vice chancellor for research of the Guilan University of Medical Sciences.

TABLES and CHARTS

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