Health literacy and related factors in postpartum women in Farsan, Iran

Background and Objectives: Health literacy provides us not only with motivation and knowledge, but also with the opportunity to seek, comprehend, assess, and apply information for making right decision in critical situations. Pregnancy and postpartum are considered to be unique and significant periods in a woman's life. Health literacy and its determinants can play an important role in protecting and improving the health of women. The aim of this study was to assess health literacy and its associated factors among postpartum women referring to Farsan comprehensive health centers. Materials and Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 300 postpartum women referring to Farsan comprehensive health centers in 2021. Quota-convenience Sampling was used to select the participants. Data were collected by demographic information and Iranian health literacy standard questionnaires. Descriptive ti ve statistics, Independent t-test and Pearson correlation test, kruskal-wallis and Mann-whitney tests were used to analyze the data. Results: The total mean score of health literacy was 61.62 +/- 17.02. Among the dimensions of health literacy, the highest score belonged to understanding, followed by reading, accessibility, evaluation and decision making. 63 (21%) of the participants had inadequate health literacy, 96 (32%) had not quite adequate, 128 (42.7%) had adequate, and 13 (34.3%) had high health literacy. Health literacy was significantly correlated with age (r=0.342, p<0.001), education (Chi 2= Chi 2= 17.734, p<.001), occupational status (t=-2.843, p=.005) and spouse' age (r=.264, p<.001). Conclusions: Health literacy score in more than half of women in our study was inadequate, especially in the young women with young husbands, low education level and housewives. The dimensions of evaluation and decision- making should be given more attention and effective interventions should be designed in this regard.