RELATION BETWEEN SCHOOLING AND HEALTH LITERACY

Introduction: Health education is an intentional activity, leading to learning related to health and disease, producing changes in knowledge, understanding and ways of thinking. However, schooling can affect the patients' capacity to obtain, process and understand information and services needed to make basic health decisions. Thus, various authors consider that patients who have more schooling are more likely to have higher health literacy skills. Objective: We intend to relate schooling with the level of health literacy in hypertensive patients. Methods: This is a quantitative, non-experimental, descriptive-correlational and cross-sectional study. The questionnaire was conducted in hypertensive patients attending surveillance consultations in primary health care. The sample is composed by 125 patients; 55,2% were female; 51,2% had less than 65 years and the majority (68,8%) belong to the group "1st-9th grade". Results: About "Global Literacy", we found significant differences in "schooling" (p=0,000). Particularly, in "Global Literacy", we found statistically significant differences between patients who only "know how to read and write" and those who have "1st-9th grade" (p=0,01) and also between those who "know how to read and write" and those who have "High School and Higher Education" (p=0,00). Conclusion: The exchange of information is an essential part of care focused on the person, because it influences patients' decisions and behaviour. Researches have consistently shown that patients' understanding in relation to their chronic conditions and treatments are positively related to adherence to treatment. Therefore, the higher the educational level, the greater the level of health literacy and the health gains.