The Study of Health Literacy of Patients Referring to Specialist Physicians' Offices in Kermanshah City

The aim of this study was to evaluate the health literacy of patients referring to specialist physicians' offices in the city of Kermanshah.

This is a descriptive analytical cross-sectional study. The population of the study (patients and their companions) included those referring to specialist physicians' offices. In 2017, 380 people were randomly selected and were studied during three months. The data collection tool was Health Literacy for Iranian Adults Assessment Questionnaire. Its validity was confirmed by specialists and its reliability turned out to be 0.89 by Cronbach's alpha. Data were analyzed by statistical tests (Spearman's correlation, Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test) using SPSS software.

The findings of the study showed that the health literacy of patients and their relatives, referring to physicians' offices in the city of Kermanshah, was relatively favorable, i.e., more than average. The three sources of "the Internet", "questions asked from doctors and medical staff" and "radio and television" are the priorities of information or health literacy. The results showed that people's health literacy was different in terms of age, sex, education, and occupation.

The results of this study revealed that often those people who have low and limited health literacy are among vulnerable community groups (having old ages, low educational levels, and low income). So, considering the health information needs and health literacy of vulnerable groups and designing simple and targeted education using the appropriate media are recommended.