THE DETERMINANTS OF NURSING, ALLIED HEALTH AND NON MEDICAL STAFFS’ HEALTH LITERACY IN HOSPITALS OF A DEVELOPING COUNTRY

INTRODUCTION: Given the role of personnel working in hospitals in promoting health, there is a clear need for a study to clarify the level of health literacy and affecting factors on it among the non medical and medical staffs working in hospitals. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was performed on 389 employees who were working in hospitals affiliated to Semnan University of Medical Sciences of Iran in 2013. RESULTS: There were significant relationships among the use of TV (P=0.044, CI=95%, Odd’s Ratio= 1.825), the use of books and journals (P<0.0001, CI=95%, Odd’s Ratio= 5.551), the use of internet (P<0.039, CI=95%, Odd’s Ratio= 0.641), the use of physicians (P<0.0001, CI=95%, Odd’s Ratio=0.070) and the nonmedical and medical staffs’ health literacy level. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate media and print information resources more than physicians and electronic information sources affect on the increase of nonmedical and medical staffs’ health literacy of hospitals of Iran. It also is better to train Iranian physicians more about the skills required for transferring health concepts. Given the important role of medical staffs in the increase of health literacy level in other members of the community, it is better to use other suitable information sources to transfer health information to all individuals in the community.