Role of Health Literacy and Demographic Variables in Determining Health-Promoting Behaviors Among High School Female Students in the City of Tehran, Iran

Since many of the healthy behaviors are adopted and develop during adolescence, proper choice of such behaviors is very important in this period of life. In addition, paying attention to the health of girls is crucial because they will transfer such behaviors to the next generation. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the role of health literacy and demographic variables in determining health-promoting behaviors among second-grade high school girl students in the City of Tehran, Iran.

This descriptive-analytic cross-sectional study was conducted on 370 female students using cluster sampling method in 2018. Data were collected using demographic, Health Literacy Measure for Adolescents (HELMA) and Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II (HPLPII) questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS25.

The results of multivariate regression analysis revealed that there were statistically significant direct associations between health-promoting behaviors and the following variables: one’s health literacy (β= 0.39, p<0.001), interest in health topics (β= 1.35, p<0.001), reading of journals and newspapers (β=0.76, p= 0.007), father's education (p= 0.002), body mass index (p= 0.022), field of study (p<0.001), the first source of health information (p<0.001) and place of residence (p = 0.023). Further analysis of the data showed an indirect association between health-promoting behaviors and age (β= -1.69, p<0.001) and health assessment (β=-1.67, p<0.01).

Based on the findings it is concluded that the subjects’ health literacy and health-promoting behavior scores were “not sufficient” and “intermediate”, respectively. It is recommended to design and implement appropriate training/intervention programs aiming at increasing the heath literacy and promoting health behaviors of female students.