Investigating the health literacy of addicts referring to addiction treatment centers in Qom city and its relationship with demographic variables

People's ability to acquire, analyze, and understand basic health information and services needed to make decisions about health and health issues is called health literacy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the health literacy of addicts referring to addiction treatment centers in Qom city and its relationship with demographic variables, 2019.

This analytical cross-sectional study was performed on 304 subjects. Samples were obtained through regular random sampling from clients of several addiction treatment centers in Qom city, 2019. Data were collected using Health Literacy for Iranian Adults (HELIA) questionnaire. The data were analyzed using ANOVA, T test, and Pearson and P <0.05 was considered.

The results showed that about 27.3% of subjects had inadequate, 26.6% borderline, 23.7% adequate and 3.6% excellent health literacy. The mean age of the samples was 42.51±11.17 years. 33.9% used health network and health related programs. There was a significant relationship between health literacy a4nd source for Obtaining Health Information (p = 0.015). In this study, there was a significant relationship between health literacy and its dimensions with education (p = 0.000) and job (p = 0.04). Results of correlation test showed that health literacy had a significant negative relationship with age (r = -289 = p = 0.000).

Since health literacy can be effective in promoting preventive behaviors and due to the low level of health of the samples studied in this study, more attention should be paid to this issue. Also, because the target population of addicts is low health literacy, there is a lack of awareness about the dangers of addiction, which leads to greater involvement in addiction and its consequences. . By carefully planning and designing effective training programs in this field can be an effective step in improving the health literacy of addicts. The poor use of samples from health-related television programs requires authorities to cultivate health literacy through the use of accessible media, virtual networks, and training classes in addiction treatment centers.