Examination of the theses published in family medicine related to health literacy with social network analysis

Abstract

Background: In recent years, it has been seen that the concept of health literacy has an increasing interest in academic studies and theses published in Turkey. Within the scope of the study, the theses written on health literacy in the field of family medicine were evaluated. It was aimed to reveal the thematic development and knowledge structure of the theses published in this field.
 Material and Methods: Within the scope of this study, social network analysis was carried out based on the keywords obtained from the theses prepared with the target of health literacy. Theses included in the study were accessed via https://tez.yok.gov.tr/UlusalTezMerkezi/. The studies that include the phrase “health literacy” in the title were selected in the examination scope, and the keywords obtained from these theses were listed.
 Results: It is observed that the concept with the highest degree of centrality and betweenness centrality is “health literacy,” as expected. Following the keyword “health literacy,” the keywords “life quality,” “mortality,” “family medicine,” “vaccine,” and “diabetes mellitus” have the highest degree of centrality, respectively. It is observed that the betweenness centrality values of the “newest vital sign” and “life quality” keywords are quite high compared to the degree centrality values.
 Conclusions: Through this study, researchers can focus on issues that are not emphasized much, create original research questions and contribute to the literature. In addition, it may be important to reveal which concepts are associated with the concept of health literacy through this study.