Investigate the relationship between health literacy and health status among elderly people in Kerman -2013

Elderly people are one of the most important groups of whom are at risk of low health literacy outcomes and exposed to many Health Problems due to waste personal independence. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between health literacy and health status of older adults in Kerman-Iran. This was a cross-sectional study in which 200 elderly people were questioned in Kerman. Data collection was performed by standard questionnaires. To analyse the data we used descriptive statistics and to study the relationship among variables, statistical tests such as chi square, T test, and one way ANOVA were applied. Most of the elderly people had inadequate health literacy (52.5%). There was a statistically significant association between education and job. Also there was a statistically significant association between ADL with health literacy (p≤0/05), but there was no statistically significant association between age, gender, marital status, economical status and physical functional with health literacy. Enhancing health literacy may be an effective strategy to improve elderly people’s health status. According to the results of this study, education and health-promoting behaviour as well as improving health literacy are recommended in planning health promotion programs.