General health literacy assessment of Iranian women in Mashhad
Journal Title: Electronic Physician - Year 2017, Vol 9, Issue 11
Abstract
BACKGROUND: In women's health, literacy determines their participation in self and family health promotion. Low health literacy is as barrier for understanding medical recommendations, disease prevention and health care. AIM: To assess women's health literacy and relative factors in Mashhad (Iran). METHODS: Women referring to healthcare centers in Mashhad in 2012 and 2013, participated in this cross-sectional study by stratified sampling method. The validated Persian version of Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine-revised questionnaire was used. Vocabulary comprehension and reading scores of health literacy was assessed. Comparisons were done in demographic subgroups by ANOVA, Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, Pearson correlation coefficient, and Chi-Square tests. RESULTS: In total, 250 women with a mean age of 32.1±10.23 years and the mean education level of 10.58±3.67 years were studied. The mean reading score was 11.58±2.51 and the mean vocabulary comprehension score was 17.24±4.73. Participants' health literacy score had positive correlation with age and education, and significant difference in health literacy scores between occupational groups was seen. Housewives' health literacy scores were lower than others (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Low health literacy was a common problem amongst younger women, especially among women who had less education. These women are at risk of early marriage and child bearing and require more health care. Health care professionals should use effective methods for easier transfer recommendation, also, producing medical information booklets, texts, and videos for different community subgroups through public media or even in cyberspace with clear and common words consisting of essential information
Authors and Affiliations
Lida Jarahi, Reza Asadi, Hamid Reza Hakimi
The rediscovery of the social side of medicine: philosophy and value of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)
Medicine is at risk of sliding into a sole repair service for the malfunction of organs. But the patients' hope and confidence towards doctors practicing this repair work go far beyond that: after acute medical treatment...
The impact of butylphthalide on the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis of patients suffering from cerebral infarction in the basal ganglia.
Butylphthalide sodium chloride injection for patients with acute cerebral infarction has a certain effect. Although there are several proposed mechanisms of drug action, no related research on improving the inflammatory...
Bio-psycho-social factors affecting sexual self-concept: A systematic review
BACKGROUND: Nowadays, it is believed that mental and emotional aspects of sexual well-being are the important aspects of sexual health. Sexual self-concept is a major component of sexual health and the core of sexuality....
Pulmonary embolism in an adolescent girl with negative ACLA systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE): a case report.
Pulmonary involvement is a common manifestation in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), whereas pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) is rarely seen in SLE. PTE related to anti-phospholipid antibody syndrome (APS) is also a rar...
Challenges of Implementation of the National Phenylketonuria Screening Program in Iran: A Qualitative Study
INTRODUCTION: Newborn screening (NBS) is a public health measure aimed at identification of early cases, management of afflicted infants, and making efforts to reduce the morbidity and mortality among newborns. All count...