The Relationship of Health Literacy and General Literacy with Quality of Life among Older Adults in Bojnurd, Iran

Quality of life of older adults is one of the most important issues in their health care. The aim of this study was to investigate the power of health literacy and general literacy in predicting quality of life among older adults in Bojnurd, Iran.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 180 older adults in Bojnurd city in 2016. The participants were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling method. The instruments used in this study included the demographic variables questionnaire, 12-Item Short Form Health Survey  and Health Literacy for Iranian Adults. To describe and analyze the data, SPSS software was used. Descriptive statistics, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Mann-Whitney U, ANOVA, Spearman correlation coefficient, and multifactorial regression analysis were run to analyze the data.

The mean health literacy score was 69.76 ± 15.05 (score range from 0 to 100) and the mean score of quality of life was 26.2 ± 6.12 (score range from 12 to 48). The level of health literacy was insufficient in 32.2% of the participants and about half of them lacked general literacy. The relationship between health literacy and quality of life was statistically significant (p < 0.001) (r = 0.54). A significant difference was observed between the illiterate and literate seniors with regard to their quality of life scores (p < 0.001). The predictive power of health literacy and general literacy was statistically significant in obtaining a higher score in quality of life with Beta coefficients of 0.65 and 0.25, respectively (p < 0.001).

Although health literacy and general literacy affect the elderlies’ quality of life positively, health literacy is more effective. Therefore, authorities are suggested to increase their quality of health literacy to improve the seniors’ quality of life.