The Study of Health Literacy of Staff about Risk Factors of Chronic Diseases in 2014

Introduction & Health literacy is the degree to which individuals obtain، interpret and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health decisions. The aim of this study was to describe health literacy of Bu Ali Sina university staff to help health care policy makers for proper interventions. In this descriptive-analytical study، health literacy of 206 employees was measured using a researcher-made questionnaire. Health literacy about risk factors of cardio-vascular diseases، cancers and diabetes was measured in 7 areas including: “attitude to health”، “understanding the information”، “social support”، “socio-economic conditions”، “ac-cess to health services «،» communication with health professionals«and “application of health information”. Median of overall health literacy level in identification of risk factors for all three dis-eases was 3. 7، and median of health literacy level in “identification of risk factors” for heart diseases، diabetes and cancers were reported 3. 53، 3. 44، and 3. 58، respectively. Except for cancer، health literacy levels about identification of cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk factors were significantly higher in women (P= 0. 02). Educational level increase showed a significant rise in health literacy score (P= 0. 008). As a whole، 75. 2% of cases had inadequate health literacy about risk factors of all three diseases. The lowest level of health literacy was related to the” application of health in-formation”. So، regarding the importance of health literacy and its link to health outcomes، it seems that policy makers need to pay more attention to health literacy improvement، particu-larly in the “application of health information”.