Investigating the Relationship between Media Literacy and Physical Health Literacy of Citizens of Bandar Abbas

Gaining physical health in today's world requires learning and increasing the level of public knowledge which depends on the media. Health literacy is a set of cognitive and social skills which determines people's motivation and ability to obtain and access information, understanding and using them to promote and maintain people's health. The importance of the interaction between media literacy and physical health literacy is so delicate that it will lead to the health or unhealthiness of a person. The present study was conducted in the statistical population of citizens over 18 years old in the city of Bandar Abbas with sample size of 384 people, using questionnaire and survey technique. Survey was analyzed  through SPSS and Smart PLS and the foundation of communication, the dimensions of media literacy and physical health literacy were studied. Findings indicate that between media literacy (0.36) and its dimensions namely information evaluation (0.42), information composition (0.32), purposeful use (0.37), information exchange (0.28) and using media (0.26) has a positive, direct and significant relationship with citizen health literacy. Therefore, all the research hypotheses are rejected. The results of the structural equation model (Smart PLS) also showed that the overall effect of independent media literacy on citizens' health literacy is 0.50.