Associations between health literacy and preventive Skin Cancer Prevention Strategies among University Students

Abstract

Background and Objective:A person’s putting every behavior into practice after they receive information on health may mean that the person can exhibit the appropriate health behavior and protect his health within the context of their level of health literacy. This study was aimed at determining university students’ health literacy levels and the effects of their health literacy on their knowledge of, and attitudes and behaviors towards skin cancer prevention strategies. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study included 800 university students in the Aegean Region of Turkey. The data were collected by the researchers between March 01, 2019 and March 30, 2019. The research data were collected using the Descriptive Characteristics Form including 3 parts (the Participants' Socio-Demographic Characteristics Questionnaire, Information-Attitude-Behavior Questionnaire, Risk Factors Questionnaire) and the Turkish Health Literacy Scale. The association between the sociodemographic characteristics of the students and their scores for protective behavior, knowledge levels and risk factors and Health Literacy was analyzed using the linear regression model (the ‘Enter’ method). The relationship between health literacy and knowledge/ attitude / behavior scores was evaluated with the Pearson’s correlation. p Results: The mean age of the participating students was 21.0 ± 1.8 (18-36) years. Of them, 63.8% were women. The study results demonstrated that the participating university students’ knowledge levels regarding the harmful effects of sunshine and skin cancer prevention were inadequate. There is a positive correlation between health literacy and sun protection attitudes and behaviors. Of the participating students, those whose health literacy levels were high and those who had high knowledge / attitude scores about sun protection displayed better sun protection behaviors (p <0.05). Conclusion: A significant result of the study was that health literacy should be improved in order to improve sun protection and skin cancer prevention strategies.