Background and Aim: Due to the impact of health literacy on how people decide about their health, such literacy is considered as one of the important issues in improving community health. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the use of social networks and the health literacy of Ilam public library users.
Materials and Methods: The present study is a practical research conducted based on descriptive-survey method in 2018. Sample size was selected by stratified random sampling. Besides, a three-part questionnaire was applied for data collection. Moreover, SPSS software was used for data analysis: Aanalysis of the mean, standard deviation and correlation coefficient.
Results: According to the average scores, public library users have had good results in health literacy components, with the aim of understanding, assessment, reading, decision making, and access to health information. Also, there was a significant relationship between the use of social networks and users' health literacy; in other words, if there was an increase in the use of social networks, health literacy level would increase.
Conclusion: Since social networks have been instrumental in enhancing the health literacy of public library users as a source of health and sanitary information, appropriate social networking can be provided to share experiences and increase the level of users' health literacy by taking into account the security of users' information and the accuracy of the given information, thereby providing new opportunities and conditions for users, doctors, patients, and planners of this domain.
