Health Literacy and Health-promoting Lifestyle among Health Volunteers in Neyshabour

Health literacy is a measure of individual’s ability to read, comprehend, and act on medical instructions. Health literacy and lifestyle are determinants of health. We aimed to assess the relationship between health literacy and health promoting behaviors.

This cross-sectional, descriptive, and analytical study was conducted on 250 health volunteers who were selected randomly. Data were collected using questionnaires of Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II (HPLP-II) and Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and to study the variables’ relationships Chi-square and Spearman correlation coefficient were applied.

Findings: The mean age of the participants was 32.9±9.7 years, and 61.5% had elementary and junior high school education. Health literacy was insufficient in 44.6% of the health volunteers, at a border level in 32.2%, and adequate in 23.1%. The mean score of health-promoting lifestyle was 130±23.8. In this study, there was a significant relationship between educational level, age and health literacy status. Inadequate health literacy was more common among individuals with advanced age and lower education. Health literacy level was significantly correlated with nutrition, spirituality, health responsibility, physical activity, interpersonal support, and stress management (P<0.001).

This study showed that the health literacy level was inadequate in health volunteers. This result showed that health literacy and striving to improve it are important. Creating a simple, understandable and accessible media and training materials, as well as implementing theory-based educational interventions are some the ways to improve health literacy