Estimate the Health Literacy in Health Centers in the Border of Yazd City: Cross sectional study

Background: Health literacy in the 21st century is an issue for global debate,which has also introduced a number of factors including an increase in noncommunicablediseases. The use of mass communication, especially theInternet has resulted in increased attention on the importance of healthliteracy. Due to the importance of health literacy of women, the purpose ofthis study is to assess health literacy in women subscribing to health centersin the border of Yazd.Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on 250women referred to health centers in the periphery of Yazd city, they wereselected using simple random sampling method, and data was collected usinga standard questionnaire of functional health literacy in adults. Collectedinformation was analyzed by the SPSS18 software and appropriate nonparametrictests.Results: Most participants were of ages between 18 - 30 years. Questionswere administered in the areas of health literacy, access area, informationaccess, information understanding, judgment and assessment. Resultsindicated that 25.2, 56.6, and 19.6% were good, but the percentage of womenin area judging from collated information in this category was not good.Regarding use of information, 84.4% of women were in the middle class, butnone of them was classified in good category.Conclusion: Health literacy of women in general was unacceptable, andrecommendations were made to establish continuous training for women toimprove their views. Also consideration should be given to centers to plan thetransformation of health literacy which has been launched, to increase theHealth literacy of the population being studied as recipients of healthservices.

Keywords:

Health Literacy , Evaluation , Women , Health Center , Yazd