Health literacy and its associated demographic factors in 18–65-year-old, literate adults in Bardaskan, Iran

AIMS: Improvement of general health literacy is one of the ways to achieve the desired public health condition. To this end, the first step is to determine the health literacy level and its associated demographic factors in individuals. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This study was a cross-sectional, descriptive-analytic survey conducted on 700 adults (age range: 18–65 years) in Bardaskan, Iran. The required samples were selected via random cluster sampling method. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The demographic questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic information. The Health Literacy for Iranian Adults questionnaire was used to determine the level of health literacy in participants. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Data analysis was conducted using SPSS software version 20 through descriptive and inferential statistics. Results were considered statistically significant at P ≤ 0.05. RESULTS: A total of 700 participants with a mean (standard deviation) age of 31.25 (9.32) years participated in this study. The primary sources of health information were physicians and health staff (50.9%) followed by the Internet (19.7%). The health literacy level of 18.1% of the participants was inadequate, 27.7% was marginal, 39.4% was adequate, and 14.7% was excellent. The mean overall scores of health literacy and its subscales were within the adequate range (66.1–84.0). The relationships of health literacy level with age, education, marital status, occupational status, and history of disease were statistically significant (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: It seems necessary to design and implement a variety of educational programs to improve the general health literacy of the citizens of Bardaskan. Educational programs need to focus on groups with higher priority such as elderly people, individuals with lower educational levels, widows/widowers and divorced/separated individuals, unemployed and retired individuals, homemakers, and individuals with a history of disease.