@2024 Afarand., IRAN

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ISSN: 2383-2150    Journal of Education and Community Health 2018;4(4):13-19

Background
Health literacy as one of the most important issues for promoting public health has gained the attention of policy makers.
Previous Studies
... [1-3]. It has been shown that the low health literacy is associated with adverse health outcomes, harmful health behaviors, less patient satisfaction and, in some cases, higher mortality. In fact, it is widely believed that low health literacy actually helps health inequalities [4]. ... [5]. Moreover, the results of numerous studies have shown that health literacy affects the general health of people [6] and the health-related quality of life, as well [7]. ... [8-14].
Aim(s)
Due to the role of adults as a productive group in the community, we aimed to determine the relationship between health literacy and quality of life in adults.
Research type
This research is a cross-sectional study.
Research society, place and time
This study was conducted among 256 adults aged 18 to 65 years in Karaj, Iran, 2016.
Sampling method and number
In this study, 285 subjects were selected by sampling method from Karaj urban areas. Accordingly, the required number of samples was selected according to the population of each twelve urban areas. At least reading and writing literacy, aged 18 to 65 years, Iranian citizenship, living in urban areas of Karaj and the informed consent were considered as inclusion criteria, and cognitive and psychological disorders, acute problems of vision and hearing and also speaking, which was hard to communicate, unwillingness to cooperate and incomplete answers to the questionnaires were considered as exclusion criteria
Used devices&materials
Data were collected using the Health Literacy Inventory for Adults (HELIA) and the Quality of Life questionnaire (SF-12). The HELIA questionnaire was used to measure the level of health literacy. Its design and psychometricity was done by Montazeri et al. (2008) and its validity was reported desirable and reliability also stated acceptable [15]. In addition, in order to assess the quality of life in subjects, the SF-12 questionnaire, which is the shorter form of SF-36, was used. Data collection was done by interviewing with the studied samples. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 21 software and analyzed by descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and Pearson correlation test.
Findings by Text
A total of 256 adults were enrolled in the study and 29 were excluded from the research due to incomplete answers to the questionnaires and unwillingness to cooperate with the study (90% response rate). The mean±SD of age was 33.48±11.39 years, of which 51.2% (131 persons) were female and 48.8% (125) were male. Also, 53.5% (137 adults) were married and 25.4% (65 adults) had a diploma or pre-university degrees. On the other hand, radio, television, physicians and staff of health centers were the most important sources of health information, by which 42.5% (109 subjects) and 37.2% (95 subjects) of participants received their information, respectively. The mean±SD of the literacy rate of the subjects was 48.93±19.24 out of 100. Figure 1 shows the distribution of adult health literacy in four groups with insufficient, less-than-insufficient, sufficient and excellent health literacy. Moreover, the results showed that the mean (±SD) of the physical and mental dimension of health-related quality of life in the studied adults was 16.24±2.68 and 20.43±3.98, respectively. Also, the mean (±SD) of health-related quality of life in adults was 36.86±5.82) out of 48 (Table 1). On the other hand, the results showed that there was a direct and significant correlation between health literacy and physical dimension of health-related quality of life (r=0.31, p<0.05) and mental dimension of health-related quality of life (r=0.24 and p<0.05). There was a direct and significant correlation between the health literacy score and the total score of health-related quality of life (r=0.28, p<0.05; Table 2).
Main comparison to the similar studies
... [16, 17]. The results of this study showed that the level of health literacy of about 47.6% of adults was insufficient and less-than-sufficient. These results are in line with the findings of the studies by Afshari et al. [18], Izadirad & Zareban [19], and Tavousi et al. [20], which have addressed the adult health literacy in Tuyserkan, Balochistan and 31 provinces in Iran. In terms of quality of life, the results also showed that the quality of life of studied adults is moderate. These results were consistent with the findings of Hosieni et al. [21], Yazdi Moghaddam et al. [22] and Soltani et al. [23], however its not consistent with the results of the study by Farhadi et al. [24], in which quality of life was reported less than moderate level. .... [25-28].
Suggestions
More attention to health literacy in quality of life improvement programs is so necessary.
Limitations
Data collection was done via self-report and this was the most important limitation of the research.
Conclusions
Regarding the relationship between health literacy and dimensions of quality of life, it seems necessary to focus more attention on improving people's health literacy, especially adults with inadequate health literacy, in quality of life promotion programs.
Acknowledgments
The authors are thankful to all those who helped to collect data and conduct this study.
Conflict of interest
None declared.
Ethical Permissions
This research is approved by the Ethics Committee of Tarbiat Modarres University (Ethics code: IR.TMU.REC.1394.172).
Funding Sources
The present study was supported by Vice Chancellor for Research of Tarbiat Modarres University.

TABLES and CHARTS

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