Health Literacy level and related factors of students in a health vocational high school

Abstract

Abstract Background Health literacy (HL) is defined as the capacity to acquire, interpret and understand basic health information and services in a way to improve person's health. Population health literacy level was found to be inadequate or limited with 64,4% Ä°n Turkey Health Literacy Research (2015). The aim of this study is to determine the HL levels of students attending health vocational high schools and the related factors. Methods The population of this cross-sectional study was students who attended to the vocational school in the center of Malatya. The sample size was determined as 337 by using the power analysis based on Turkish data. Official permission was obtained for the research. In May and June 2019, Turkish Health Literacy Questionnaire-32 (THLQ) developed by the Ministry of Health was applied to the accepting students in this study.The score obtained from the scale is considered to be insufficient of 25 and below, limited to > 25-33 points and a score of < 33 and above is sufficient or excellent. In the analysis of the data, Kolmogorov Smirnov, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests were used and p < 0.05 was chosen as the level of error. Results 68% of the students is female and 32% is male. The average age of the research group is 16.6 ± 1.1 (min. 14, max. 20). 18.3% of male students stated that 6.6% of female students smoke. The THLQ score of the study group was found to be 33.7 ± 8.9. 53.7% of male students and 39.5% of female students had insufficient or limited HL different from each other significantly (p < 0,025). 56.4% of students in 9th and 10th grades and 37.4% of 11th and 12th grade students were found to have insufficient or limited HL significantly (p < 0,0001). There was no difference between HLL scores and other socio-demographic characteristics(p > 0,05). Conclusions The frequency of adequate or excellent HL in the study group is higher among females (60.5%) than males (46.3%). It can be said that female students value health more. Key messages The limited level of health literacy of health vocational high school students indicates the insufficiency of health education in schools. Health topic campaigns should be organized frequently for awareness on health education during school education.