The Role of Health Literacy in Reducing Healthcare Costs and Referring to the Hospital among Elderly

Abstract

Introduction: Health literacy is the capacity of individuals to obtain, process and understand information about basic health services needed to make appropriate health decisions. Inadequate health literacy is associated with a variety of adverse health consequences and inappropriate use of health care. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between patients' health literacy level and the cost of treatment among the elderly. Methods: The present study was a descriptive-analytical study. The research sample was 1008 main pensioners of the Social Security Organization in Ahvaz. The research instruments were two questionnaires entitled Test Of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA) and Health Services Utilization Questionnaire. The obtained data were analyzed by SPSS software. Descriptive statistics (frequency, mean and standard deviation) and analytical statistics (Pearson and Spearman correlation) with a significance level of 0.5 were used. Results: The findings of this study showed that more than 80% of the participants have inadequate health literacy. The results also show the inverse and negative relationship between people's health literacy and the number of referrals to health centers and also its inverse relationship with treatment costs. Conclusion: Improving the level of health literacy reduces the cost of treatment in the health system and also increases the level of welfare and health in individuals, and this is especially important in the elderly whose health needs are higher than ordinary people. To educate and promote health literacy, one must turn to social contact points with the elderly, including libraries and librarians.