Decomposing Socioeconomic Inequality in Health Literacy in Iran: A Concentration Index Approach

BACKGROUND: Health literacy is a major factor for health promotion and well-being. In spite of several researches on health literacy, information on the subject of the status of health literacy in Asian countries such as Iran is inadequate. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the inequality of health literacy in an Iranian population and its influencing factors. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 736 families were selected by cluster random sampling. A validated questionnaire was used to measure the health literacy of participants. Socioeconomic status (SES) was calculated by asset-based approach, and principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to estimate the families’ SES. Concentration index and curve were used to measure SES inequality in health literacy, and after that decomposed into its determinants. The data were analyzed by Stata software. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 34.81 years (standard deviation = 5.98 years). The value of concentration index for health literacy equals 0.2292 (95% confidence interval = 0.168–0.283), and this value indicates that there is inequality in distribution of health literacy in Iran and the inequality disfavors the poor. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study revealed that there is inequality in distribution of health literacy in Iran, and people of higher economic status in Iran enjoy from better health literacy levels.