Investigating the role of spiritual health in explaining health literacy: A Study about awareness of breast self- examination, health literacy and spiritual health among female high school students in Shiraz

The goal of this study was to see whether there is a link between this crucial characteristic and health literacy among female teenagers, especially in terms of their attitudes toward breast self-examination.

study was a cross sectional survey. Using multi-stage cluster sampling, 600 female students in grades 10 and 11 were chosen. A standard health literacy questionnaire created by Montazeri et al.  and a 20-item spiritual health questionnaire created by Paloutzian and Ellison was used. Data were analyzed using SPSS 22.

The majority of respondents had moderate health literacy and spiritual health, with a positive and significant correlation (r = 0.32).  Health literacy has also been linked to maternal education and lower social class affiliation. Spiritual health was shown to be the most important variable in explaining health literacy in the regression.

The research findings show the importance of spiritual health in health literacy and attitude towards health and preventive behaviors. Policymakers should give much more importance to spiritual health, especially in existential  and non-ritual religious form, in designing preventive interventions.