Designing and Validating the Health Literacy Improvement Model for Teaching Staff of Ardabil University of Medical Sciences: a Mixed Methods Study

Health literacy is a global issue and its education and improvement has become an important measure in this direction. Therefore, medical science universities have an urgent need to realize and substantiate the health literacy of their employees. However, for this reason, a comprehensive model for universities of medical sciences has not yet been identified and formulated, and many of its antecedents remain unknown. The purpose of the present research was to design and validate the health literacy improvement model for teaching staff of Ardabil University of Medical Sciences.

The current research was a mixed methods studyusing a grounded theory approach for the qualitative part and a survey for the quantitative part. In the qualitative phase, the in-depth interviews with experts and eminent professors of Ardabil University of Medical Sciences were conducted based on the purposeful sampling method. Theoretical saturation was reached after 10 participant interviews. After analyzing the qualitative data through coding inspired by Glaser's theory and using MaxQDA v.21 software, the model was designed. In the quantitative phase, the model was validated using structural-interpretive equation modeling method and smart PLS software was used. For this purpose, 234 teaching staff at Ardabil University of Medical Sciences was randomly selected to complete a questionnaire consisting of 24 questions.

According to the results, in open coding, 213 primary codes, in axial coding 71 major categories and in selective coding 11 core categories in the form of causal, contextual, intervening conditions, strategies/actions, consequences and the main phenomenon (health literacy) was classified. In this section, health literacy was designed as the main phenomenon in the form of a logical model and based on its understanding with conditions (causal, contextual and intervening), strategies/measures and consequences. Finally, the results of structural-interpretive equation modeling showed that the final model obtained from the qualitative part of the research had a good validity.

In general, due to the high validity of the designed model, it can be implemented in universities of medical sciences and with its implementation; we can expect a fundamental improvement in the health literacy of the teaching staff of Ardabil University of Medical Sciences.