@2024 Afarand., IRAN

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ISSN: 2383-2150    Journal of Education and Community Health 2017;4(3):44-51

Background
Individuals who are aware of the positive effects of kindness use it as a means for maintaining and controlling their health.
Previous Studies
.... [1-4]. Self-compassion is associated with emotions, such as social bonding and life satisfaction, which are components of meaningful life [5]. Self-compassion is also associated with loving yourself and concern and care about the others, but it does not mean self-orientation or the preferences of your needs. .... [6-10]. Health literacy is the capacity to acquire, process and understand basic information and services needed for proper health decision making [11]. .... [12, 13]. Measuring the level of health literacy is essential to prevent the risk of limited literacy [14].
Aim(s)
We performed this study to investigate the relationship between self-compassion and health literacy in first grade high school students in Gonabad, Iran.
Research type
This research is a descriptive correlational study.
Research society, place and time
The present study was conducted on 351 high school girls and boys in Gonabad city who were selected by stratified random sampling in 2017.
Sampling method and number
The total study population included 2725 subjects. According to the Morgan table and considering 10% possibility of reduction, 370 questionnaires were distributed among the students, of which 19 questionnaires were omitted due to incomplete information and 351 questionnaires were analyzed. The questionnaires were distributed using stratified random sampling; therefore, the questionnaires were distributed randomly and according to the number of students, according to the number of students studying in exceptional schools, boarding schools and ordinary students. The inclusion criterion was the willingness to participate in the study. Exclusion criterion was also unwillingness to continue to participate in the research.
Used devices&materials
A self-report Self-Compensation Questionnaire and Health Literacy for Iranian Adults (HELIA) were used for data collection. Self-compensation questionnaire by Nef (2003) was used, which consists of 26 items and is scored on a Likert scale from 5 (almost never) to 1 (almost always). HELIA was designed by Montazeri et al. including 33 items and 5 components. The components are: access (items 1 to 6), reading skills (items 7 to 10), understanding (items 11 to 17), evaluation (items 18 to 21), and decision making and application of health information (items 22 to 33). The validity and reliability of the questionnaire reported desirable [12]. Data analysis was done using SPSS 20 and descriptive statistics (mean, frequency, percentages), independent t-test, One-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and linear regression.
Findings by Text
Of the 351 students participating in this study, 161 students were female and 190 were boys, of which 115 were studying at the seventh grade, 126 students at the eighth grade, and 110 students at the ninth grade. Based on the results of Table 1, the mean and standard deviation of the total score of self-compassion and health literacy were 71.60±12.90 and 77.11±17.41, respectively. The relationship between self-compassion and health literacy is presented in Table 2 using Pearson correlation coefficient test. Based on the findings, there was a positive and significant correlation between the total self-compassion score (r=0.311, P<0.01), self-kindness (r=0.594, P<0.01), common humanity (r=0.261, p<0.01) and mindfulness (r=0.379, P<0.01) with health literacy. The results of predicting the level of health literacy through self-compassion in students using multiple regression (Enter) are presented in Table 3. To evaluate regression assumptions, Durbin-Watson obtained 1.88; therefore, the errors were independent of each other. Also, in all cases, the vif obtained 1.6 (max) and was much less than 10; therefore, there is no multicolinearity and there are multiple regression assumptions are accepted. According to the findings, it is possible to predict students' health literacy based on their self-compassion subscales. It is worth noting that self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness subscales were significant predictors for the health literacy and 20.1% of the students' health literacy variance was explained by self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness. The relationship between self-compassion and health literacy with demographic variables is presented in Table 4 using independent t-test and one-way ANOVA. According to the findings, there was no significant difference between self-compassion in boys and girls (P=0.109); however, there was a significant difference in the health literacy of girls and boys (P=0.111). The average health literacy in boys was higher than that of girls. On the other hand, there was no significant difference between health literacy according to the students' educational grade (P=0.051). No significant difference was found between the students' self-compassion according to their educational grade (P=0.67).
Main comparison to the similar studies
.... [15-23]. The results of this study are consistent with the findings of Ajam et al. who showed there is a correlation between self-compassion with general health and academic achievement of students of nursing and midwifery faculty of Mashhad university of medical sciences [24]. Also, the results of this study were consistent with the findings of Smeets et al., who indicated that self-compassion intervention led to a significant increase in rumination compared to active control intervention in female students [25]. The results also showed that there is a difference between the level of health literacy among male and female students, which is consistent with the findings of the study by Panahi et al. [13] who reported that the average health literacy of men and women is different. .... [26-30].
Suggestions

Limitations
The study population was limited to first-year high school students; therefore, the results should be cautiously generalized to other grades, which can be considered as one of the limitations of this study.
Conclusions
This study demonstrated a significant relationship between self-compassion and health literacy. Therefore, to prevent the further financial costs and develop a culture of promoting health literacy, we recommend broadcasting audio and video programs, distributing educational flyers, as well as holding training courses and workshops.
Acknowledgments
The researchers are thankful to all the school principals, who have contributed to the distribution of the questionnaires, the students, who responded to the questionnaires with care and patience, and also the first-year high school education expert of Gonabad education administration for providing the number of students.
Conflict of interest
None declared.
Ethical Permissions
In order to observe ethical considerations, the researcher obtained informed consent by introducing himself and explaining the goals and method of the research. It should be noted that the sample group was assured that their information would remain confidential.
Funding Sources
The present study was extracted from the findings of a research supported by Payam-e-Noor University.

TABLES and CHARTS

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