The study of health literacy and its related factors among female students at high schools in Qazvin

Abstract

Background and Objective: Health literacy has impact in preventing harm to the community of students, disease prevention, self-care and life quality. This study aimed to determine the health literacy and its related factors in high school students in Qazvincity. Materials and Methods: This research was a descriptive cross-sectional study. The population of this study was 372 students of girl’s high school of Qazvin in 2019 that were selected by multi-stage sampling. The data collection tool was demographic and field questionnaire and the standard questionnaire for Health Literacy Measure for Adolescents (HELMA). Data were analysed using SPSS software version 23 and descriptive statistics and logistic regression. Results: The mean (standard deviation) of the health literacy score was 70.84(12.58) from 100. 5.4 % (n=20) had low health literacy, 31.2 % (n=116) had inadequate health literacy, 46.5 % (n=173) had adequate health literacy and 16.4 % (n=61) had high health literacy. Health literacy had a significant statistically relationship with basic educational variables (P = 0.003) and interest in health topics (P = 0.002) but it had no relationship with other demographic and background variables (P >0.05). Conclusion: Considering the limited health literacy in a wide range of students, adding some items to school curricula such as education related to the level of health literacy can be effective in improving the health literacy of students.