Leila Dehghankar, Marzieh Hajikarimbaba, Rahman Panahi,
Volume 17, Issue 3 (12-2019)
Abstract
Background and Aim: Considering the central role of low health literacy (HL) in causing health inequalities and the fast growth of university student populations, this study aimed to determine the HL and its related factors among university students.
Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive-analytic cross-sectional study including 375 female students of Imam Khomeini International University in Qazvin, Iran in 2019 selected using the stratified random sampling method. The data-collecting tools included a demographic and background questionnaire and an Iranian adult HL assessment questionnaire. The SPSS 23 software was used for data analysis, the statistical tests being descriptive and logistic regression tests.
Results: Data analysis showed that 17 (4.5%) of the students had inadequate, 112 (29.9%) insufficient, 188 (50.1%) adequate, and 58 (15.5%) excellent HL, the mean HL percentage (± SD) being 70.80 (± 12.49). Based on logistic regression analysis, there was a statistically significant association between HL and physical activity (p =0.039), such that the chance of having good HL among the students with physical activity on most days was 2.097 times that of those with regular daily physical activity. A significant relationship was also found between HL and employment (p =0.042), such that the chance of having good HL among the employed students was 0.534 times that of unemployed students.
Conclusion: Considering the low health literacy rate among the students with low physical activity and those who are unemployed, it is recommended to pay more attention to these students when designing educational programs to increase their health literacy.
Rahman Panahi, Leila Dehghankar, Mahya Shafaei, Ali Razaghpoor,
Volume 17, Issue 4 (3-2020)
Abstract
Background and aim: Health literacy can be one of the most important effective factors in the adoption of preventive behaviors of osteoporosis by raising awareness and understanding the benefits of diagnostic and preventive behaviors. The objective of this study was to determine the health literacy skills effective in predicting adoption of osteoporosis preventive behaviors in high school female students.
Materials and methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study including 375 high school girls in Qazvin, Iran, selected by multi-stage sampling. Data were collected using the standard Health Literacy Measure for Adolescents (HELMA) and the Preventive Behavior of Osteoporosis Measurement questionnaires. The data were analyzed using the statistical software SPSS-23, the tests being descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis.
Results: Two of the eight components of health literacy, namely, understanding and communication, and two, namely usage of health information and calculation, were found to receive the highest and the lowest mean scores, respectively. The total scores of health literacy and the adoption of preventive behaviors of osteoporosis were 70.84±12.58 (out 100) and 22.43±5.60 (out of 36), respectively. Multiple regression analysis showed that the components of health literacy could predict 38.4% of the changes in the adoption of preventive behaviors of osteoporosis (R2 = 0.384). The only other predictor of adoption of behavior was the usage of health information (P=0.001، β=0.044).
Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended to pay special attention, when developing educational programs for the prevention of osteoporosis in adolescents, to health literacy as a whole, especially the usage of health information component.
