The Health Literacy Level of the Parents of Children Admitted to a University Hospital

Introduction: Health literacy has become an increasingly popular study subject with the relationship between individuals'efficient use of health services and the decrease in health expenditures.Since parents are in a decision-making position not only on their health but also on their children's health, parents' health literacy levels have great importance. There are studies in the literature that examine the relationship between parents' health literacy,children's ages and the outpatient clinics their children apply to, and the health literacy levels of adults. To our knowledge,our study is the first study in which the age range of children and the outpatient clinics they applied to were evaluated without limitations. Our study, it was aimed to evaluate the factors related to parents and their children that may affect the health literacy levels of parents. Materials and Methods: One of the parents of 360 children aged 0-18 who applied to the outpatient clincs of KSU Health Practice and Research Hospital was included in our study. Parents who voluntarily participated in the study were asked to fill out a 73 question questionnaire including a sociodemographic form and a TSOY-32 scale. The sociodemographic and clinical data of the parents, their scores on the TSOY-32 scale and their health literacy levels were compared. Statistical analysis of the data was made with the SPSS 22.0 package program. Results: In our study, the mean age of the parents was found to be 34.957.39 years. The mean TSOY-32 general index score is 32.62 +/- 10.3, and it is in the problematic-limited health literacy category in line with the literature. A significant difference was found between the age, education level, occupation,income status, number of households, number of children, age of the accompanying child, and the health literacy levels of the parents. Conclusion: Consistent with the literature,a significant difference was found between the ages, education levels, occupations of the parents, and the health literacy levels and general index scores of the parents. Improving the ealth literacy levels of parents will contribute to the correct management of children's acute and chronic diseases, efficient use of health services, and reducing per capita health expenditure. In this direction, it is thought that besides the studies that can be done to increase the health literacy levels of the society, it will be beneficial to organize public service announcements and training, especially targeting parents.