The Role of Health Literacy in Reducing Healthcare Costs and Referring to the Hospital among Elderly

Health literacy is the individuals’ capability to obtain, process, and understand the necessary health information required for appropriate health-related decisions. Inadequate health literacy is associated with a variety of adverse health consequences and inappropriate use of healthcare services. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between patients’ health literacy and treatment costs among the elderly.

This research was a descriptive-analytical study. The research sample included 1008 main pensioners of the Social Security Organization of Ahvaz. The research instruments were two ques-tionnaires: Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA) and Health Services Utilization. The data obtained were analyzed using the SPSS software. Descriptive statistics (frequency, mean, and standard deviation) and analytical statistics (Pearson correlation) with a significance level of 0.5 were used.

This study’s findings revealed that more than 80% of the participants have inadequate health literacy. The results also show the inverse and negative relationship between people’s health literacy and the number of referrals to health centers, and its inverse relationship with treatment costs.

Improving health literacy reduces the cost of treatment in the health system and in-creases individuals’ welfare and health. This is especially important for the elderly, whose health needs are higher than ordinary people. Social contact points with the elderly should be addressed, including libraries and librarians to educate and promote health literacy.