Health literacy among mothers with children under 6 years old, a population-based cross-sectional study in Iran, 2019-20

 Health literacy has gained increasing attention in public health. It was aimed to assess the health literacy and the related determinants among mothers with children under 6 years old in Arak, Iran in 2019-20.

 In this population-based cross-sectional study, 1483 mothers were included  through stratified random sampling. The study included demographic variables and socioeconomic status (SES) based on asset variables. Health literacy was collected by Health Literacy for Iranian Adults questionnaire. The principal component analysis was applied to calculate SES based on asset indices. Univariate and adjusted linear regression models were applied to assess the determinants of health literacy.

 The mean age of the children was 2.1±1.5. The mean score of health literacy was 70.2±17.5 in mothers. there was a significant association between mother’s and her husband’s permanent job and SES and total health literacy. Minimum and maximum scores of health literacy were obtained in the appraisal and understanding subscales, respectively. Totally, 36.4% of the participants had adequate health literacy.

 It was concluded that the health literacy of the mothers was relatively high.