Determining The Health Literacy Level in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb/5.1/31Keywords:
Health, Health Literacy, Health ManagementAbstract
Health literacy is one of the areas most affected by advances in information technologies. The desperation of states around the world in the COVID-19 epidemic that emerged in early 2020 has increased the importance of the issue further. The problems faced by states in preventing the spread of the epidemic and directing their citizens make it necessary for people to increase their awareness of health issues. In this research, it is aimed to determine the health literacy levels of individuals living in the TRNC. In this context, 32-item health literacy scale (Turkey Health Literacy Scale-32) developed by Okyay, Abacıgil and Hagan (2013) was used. Data from 203 subjects in the study were collected and subjected to analysis. As a result of the analysis of the data, it was determined that the overall score increase for health literacy was 3.71 out of 5 (74 out of 100), the participants were in the "adequate" class in the assessment of health-related information and in the "excellent" class in other dimensions. While the level of health literacy did not differ depending on gender, marital status and the mode of action exhibited in the state of being ill, it was concluded that there was a statistically significant difference depending on the importance given to healthy nutrition and sports/exercise and satisfaction with health services.
References
Aslantekin, F., & Yumrutaş, M. (2014). Sağlık okuryazarlığı ve ölçümü [Health literacy and measurement]. TAF Preventive Medicine Bulletin, 13(4), 327-334. https://doi.org/10.5455/pmb1-1364566995
Demir, B., Yücesoy, Y., & Serttaş, Z. (2020). Öğretmen adaylarinin program okuryazarlik seviyeleri [Program literacy levels of teacher candidates]. KKTC Örneği. Uluslararası Türk Kültür Coğrafyasında Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi [TRNC Example. International Journal of Social Sciences in Turkish Cultural Geography], 5(1), 28-37. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/turksosbilder/issue/58519/825663
Gürbüz, S. I., & Şahin F. (2016). Sosyal Bilimlerde Araştırma Yöntemleri, 3. Basım [Research Methods in Social Sciences, 3rd Edition]. Seçkin Yayıncılık.
Kickbusch, I. S. (2001). Health Literacy: Addressing the Health and Education Divide. Health Promotion International, 16(3), 289–297. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/16.3.289
Kickbusch, I., Jürgen, M. P., Franklin, A., & Agis, D. T. (Ed.). (2013). Health Literacy: The Solid Facts. World Health Organization. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/326432
Kripalani, S., & Weiss, B. D. (2006). Teaching about health literacy and clear communication. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 21(8), 888–890. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00543.x
Kutner, M., Greenburg, E., Jin, Y., & Paulsen, C. (2006). The Health Literacy of America’s Adults: Results From the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy. NCES 2006-483, National Center for Education Statistics.
Mancuso, J. M. (2008). Health literacy: a concept/dimensional analysis. Nursing & Health Sciences, 10(3), 248–255. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-2018.2008.00394.x
Morris, N. S., MacLean, C. D., Chew, L. D., & Littenberg, B. (2006). The Single Item Literacy Screener: Evaluation of a brief instrument to identify limited reading ability. BMC Family Practice 7, 21. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2296-7-21
Nutbeam, D. (2000). Health Literacy as a Public Health Goal: A Challenge for Contemporary Health Education and Communication Strategies into the 21st Century. Health Promotion International, 15(3), 259–267. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/15.3.259
Okan, O. (2019). From Saranac Lake to Shanghai: A brief history of health literacy. In O. Okan, U. Bauer, Z. D. Levin, P. Pinheiro, & K. Sørensen. (Eds.), International Handbook of Health Literacy, Research, Practice and Policy across the Lifespan. Policy Press.
Okyay, P., Abacıgil, F., & Harlak, H. (2013). Avrupa sağlık okuryazarlığı olçeği Türkçe uyarlaması [Turkish adaptation of the European health literacy scale]. In O. P. F. Abacıgil (Ed.), Türkiye sağlık okuryazarlığı olçekleri güvenilirlik ve geçerlilik çalışması [Turkish health literacy scales reliability and validity study] (pp. 21-41). T.C. Sağlık Bakanlığı Yayın.
Parker, R. (2009). Measuring Health Literacy: What? So what? Now What? In L. Hernandez (Ed.), Measures of Health Literacy: Workshop Summary, Roundtable on Health Literacy, (pp. 91–98). National Academies Press.
Sarıyar, S., & Kılıç, H. F. (2019). Sağlık Okuryazarlığının Değerlendirilmesinde Kullanılan Araçlar [Tools Used to Evaluate Health Literacy]. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Hemşirelik Fakültesi Dergisi, 6(2), 126-131. https://doi.org/10.31125/hunhemsire.598649
Sentell, T. L., & Halpin, H. A. (2006). Importance of adult literacy in understanding health disparities. Journal of general internal medicine, 21(8), 862–866. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00538.x
Simonds, S. K. (1974). Health Education as Social Policy. Health Education & Behavior, 2, 1 - 10. https://doi.org/10.1177/10901981740020S102
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 The Authors & LUMEN Publishing House
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work, with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in the journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as an earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
EEJMHB Journal has an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
CC BY-NC-ND
