Health literacy and its associated demographic factors in 18-65-year-old, literate adults in Bardaskan, Iran

Hamid Joveini; Alireza Rohban; Parisa Askarian; Mina Maheri; Masoumeh Hashemian

doi:10.4103/jehp.jehp_26_19

Health literacy and its associated demographic factors in 18-65-year-old, literate adults in Bardaskan, Iran

J Educ Health Promot. 2019 Dec 31:8:244. doi: 10.4103/jehp.jehp_26_19. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Hamid Joveini¹, Alireza Rohban², Parisa Askarian¹, Mina Maheri³, Masoumeh Hashemian¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Education and Promotion, School of Health, Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Sabzevar, Iran.
² Department of Rehabilitation Management, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
³ Department of Public Health, School of Health, Reproductive Health Research Center, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran.

Abstract

Aims: Improvement of general health literacy is one of the ways to achieve the desired public health condition. To this end, the first step is to determine the health literacy level and its associated demographic factors in individuals.

Settings and design: This study was a cross-sectional, descriptive-analytic survey conducted on 700 adults (age range: 18-65 years) in Bardaskan, Iran. The required samples were selected via random cluster sampling method.

Subjects and methods: The demographic questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic information. The Health Literacy for Iranian Adults questionnaire was used to determine the level of health literacy in participants.

Statistical analysis: Data analysis was conducted using SPSS software version 20 through descriptive and inferential statistics. Results were considered statistically significant at P ≤ 0.05.

Results: A total of 700 participants with a mean (standard deviation) age of 31.25 (9.32) years participated in this study. The primary sources of health information were physicians and health staff (50.9%) followed by the Internet (19.7%). The health literacy level of 18.1% of the participants was inadequate, 27.7% was marginal, 39.4% was adequate, and 14.7% was excellent. The mean overall scores of health literacy and its subscales were within the adequate range (66.1-84.0). The relationships of health literacy level with age, education, marital status, occupational status, and history of disease were statistically significant (P < 0.001).

Conclusion: It seems necessary to design and implement a variety of educational programs to improve the general health literacy of the citizens of Bardaskan. Educational programs need to focus on groups with higher priority such as elderly people, individuals with lower educational levels, widows/widowers and divorced/separated individuals, unemployed and retired individuals, homemakers, and individuals with a history of disease.

Keywords: Adult; Iran; health literacy.