The Mediating Effect of Self-Care Measures on the Relationship between Health literacy and Quality of life of Patients after Open Heart Surgery

Health literacy refers to the ability of individuals to acquire, analyze and understand the information and basic health services they need to contribute to their health issues and make the right decisions. Today, health literacy is one of the pillars of community health. The purpose of this study was to provide a model for assessing the effect of health literacy and self-care measures on the quality of life of cardiovascular patients after open heart surgery.

This study is an applied research and based on the method of data collection is a descriptive-survey type that the statistical population of the study was all patients who had open heart surgery at the Tehran heart center and among them, 138 people were selected by available sampling. Data gathering tool was a researcher-made questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by face validity and convergent validity and reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha. Structural equation method was used to analyze the collected data.

The results of hypothesis testing showed Health literacy with path coefficient (0.685) has a positive and significant effect on self-care measures, Health literacy with path coefficient (0. 350) has a positive and significant effect on patients' quality of life, and self-care measures with path coefficient (0.418) have a positive and significant effect on patients' quality of life.

Improvement of health literacy and self-care behaviors in cardiac patients after open heart surgery can improve the quality of life of these patients after surgery and reduce complications after surgery.