ISMJ

Background: Health literacy is defined as the degree of Individual's capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. Functional health literacy is critically important during the typical patient–provider encounter According to this, current research aimed to investigate the level of the health literacy of patients referred to Bushehr’s hospital (Iran) and recognizing its effective factors.

Material and Methods: In this descriptive survey, 250 patients refers to Bushehr’s hospital (Iran) were selected as a sample study. Health literacy was measured by Normalized Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults. Data were analyzed using SPSS and Independent t-tests, One Way ANOVA and Pearson correlation at a significant level (p.value>0.05).

Results: The findings showed that the level of the health literacy of these patients was in marginal level (69.2). Health literacy was associated by sexuality, age and education.

Conclusion: Generally, this research shows that the health literacy level is not adequate among patients. This result determines  it is important to that notice health literacy and trying to improve it. Providing easy and readable educational resources for patients, educational classes for them and so on are some ways to improve health literacy.