The Relationship of Health Literacy with Hypertension Self-Efficacy and General Self-Efficacy Among Schoolteachers

Abstract

Background: Health literacy and self-efficacy are two key factors behind a wide variety of health-related outcomes. Objectives: This study aimed to examine the relationship of health literacy with hypertension self-efficacy and general self-efficacy. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study was conducted in 2016. Study sample consisted of 202 schoolteachers who were randomly selected from elementary and secondary schools in Qaenat county, Iran. Participants provided informed consent for participation and personally completed a demographic questionnaire, the short test of functional health literacy in adults, Sherer’s general self-efficacy scale, and Mularcik’s hypertension self-efficacy scale. The SPSS program (V. 19.0) was employed for data analysis through running the independent-sample t, Chi-square, Tukey’s post hoc tests, Pearson correlation analysis, and one-way analysis of variance at a significance level of less than 0.05. Results: The means of participants’ health literacy, hypertension self-efficacy, and general self-efficacy were 26.8 ± 7.5, 47.9 ± 11.5, and 38.1 ± 8.9, respectively. Most participants had adequate health literacy (77.2%) and high hypertension self-efficacy (71.3%), while only 9.9% of them had high general self-efficacy. There was a significant negative relationship between general self-efficacy and educational level. Moreover, health literacy had a significant negative correlation with age (r = -0.17; P = 0.013) and significant positive correlations with hypertension self-efficacy (r = 0.26; P = 0.001) and general self-efficacy (r = 0.15; P = 0.04). Conclusions: Health literacy has significant relationships with hypertension self-efficacy and general self-efficacy. Therefore, educational interventions can be used to improve health literacy, promote hypertension self-efficacy and general self-efficacy, and facilitate hypertension management.