Investigating the relationship between health literacy and lifestyle in the elderly with hypertension

 Improper lifestyle is one of the influential factors in the occurrence of chronic diseases, including high blood pressure. Health literacy is an important factor for people to better understand their health management. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between health literacy and lifestyle in the elderly with hypertension.

 The present study was a descriptive-analytical study that was conducted on 210 elderly people with hypertension who referred to specialized clinics under Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences using a simple random method. The tools of data collection were health promoting lifestyle questionnaires (HPLP2) and health literacy of Iranian cattle (HELIA). Data analysis was done with SPSS version 23 software and Pearson correlation and regression tests.

The average age of the elderly was 67 years, of which 54.8% were men. The results of statistical analysis showed that 62% of the samples had a favorable lifestyle and 58% had sufficient health literacy. Men's lifestyle and health literacy had higher average scores than women (p<0.003). In the examination of the average scores of health literacy and lifestyle, a significant relationship was observed with the variables of employment status, education level, place of residence and the number of drugs consumed (p<0.05). A statistically significant correlation was seen between the variables of health literacy and lifestyle (p>0.001).

Increasing health literacy is an important step in improving lifestyle. It seems necessary to carry out educational-counseling interventions to improve the lifestyle of the elderly