The Role of Health Literacy in Coping with Anxiety Caused by Covid-19 Pandemic

The experiences of different countries as well as the results of numerous research studies show that health-promoting behaviors are necessary to maintain the health of citizens, and people with inadequate health literacy have poorer health status. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the role of health literacy in coping with anxiety caused by Covid-19 pandemic among Tehran citizens.

This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 384 citizens over the age of 20 in Tehran. Sampling was conducted using Sample Power software and data were collected using two questionnaires of health literacy of Iranians from Montazeri et al. and anxiety caused by Corona from Alipour et al. (2009). Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability have been used to calculate validity, and face validity has been used to obtain the necessary validity.

Findings indicate that the mean scores of anxiety caused by Covid-19 pandemic were lower in men than those of women. Also, based on analytical results it can be said that the dimensions of health literacy (reading, assessment, comprehension, decision making, and behavior and access) are able to approximately account for 47% of anxiety caused by Covid-19.In general, anxiety caused by Covid-19 is high among citizens and due to the direct relationship between health literacy and control of Covid-19, the need for health-oriented education programs based on the areas of health-promoting behaviors and health literacy components is suggested.