Relationship between health literacy and self-care for prevention of high blood pressure among firefighters in Tehran in 1398

This study aimed to determine the relationship between health literacy and self-care of hypertension among firefighters in Tehran.

This cross-sectional study, which conducted in among 360 male firefighters, age of 18-60 years, working in the Tehran Fire Department in year 2019 was performed by two-stage sampling method in cluster and simple random. Data were collected through demographic form, Health literacy for Iranian adult questionnaire (HELIA) and researcher-made self-care checklist for hypertensive disease. Data were analyzed in SPSS (version 22) using descriptive methods and, analytical tests.

57.5% of people were in the age group of 30-40. The mean score of health literacy was 73.96 with a standard deviation of 3.8. The highest mean score of health literacy was related to information perception and the lowest average score was related to reading skills. Among study sample, 44.2% had “good” and 26.7% had” very good” health literacy. Also, the mean score of self-care behaviors was 19.23 with a standard deviation of 3.4. About 14.4% of employees had a mean score of good self-care. There was a direct and significant correlation between health literacy and self-care (r= .36 [m1] , p <0.001[m2] ).

Health literacy and self-care behaviors weren’t favorable. There was a significan[93] t positive correlation between health literacy and self-care. Therefore, it is necessary to design an appropriate intervention.