Evaluation of Health Literacy in the Iranian Population

Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to assess the level of health literacy (HL) in the Iranian population. Data Sources: Persian and English-language articles were identified through Embase, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, SID, Web of Science, and hand-searching (search dates for articles on health literacy, 1990 to February 2016). Study Selection: Two reviewers independently selected studies that directly measured health literacy levels. Data Extraction: Abstracted article information were categorized into evidence tables by one reviewer; information accuracy was checked by a second reviewer. Two reviewers independently evaluated the study quality by using predefined inclusion criteria, and jointly the overall strength of evidence evaluated by the research team. Results: Twenty-eight relevant good-or fair-quality studies amongst 102 articles were identified, and 44 publications were assessed in full text. The researchers excluded 16 studies: Nine were reports with inadequate results and seven had low quality. Results of meta-analysis showed that better level of HL existed among 66 adults (62.47 to 69.53), 61.62 patients (53.40 to 69.84), 58.88 female (51.68 to 66.07), and 40.98 elderly (17.71 to 64.26). Conclusions: Health Literacy of the Iranian population was inadequate and borderline. Therefore, the need to increase awareness and intervention to reduce poor HL in the Iranian population is crucial.