The effects of health literacy levels of patients undergoing abdominal surgery on health perception and anxiety

This study was carried out as a descriptive study in order to determine the effects of health literacy levels of patients undergoing abdominal surgery on health perception and surgery-specific anxiety. The population of the study consisted of patients who will undergo abdominal surgery in the general surgery service of a city hospital in İstanbul between 27.11.2023 and 22.02.2024. The study was completed with 145 patients who met the sampling inclusion criteria. The data were collected by face to face interview technique one day before the operation using the "Data Collection Form", "Health Literacy Scale (HLS)", "Health Perception Scale (HPS)" and "Anxiety Specific to Surgery Questionnaire (ASSQ)". The data were analyzed using SPSS version 26. It was determined that the mean age of the patients was 51,48±12,97 years, 61,4% were female, 86,2% had children, 60,7% had primary education or below and 53,1% evaluated their health as good. It was determined that male gender, increasing education level and evaluating their health as good were the independent variables that increased the health literacy level of the patients. The mean total score of the HLS was 102,48±15,21, the mean total score of the HPS was 50,08±7,40 and the total mean score of the ASSQ was 25,77±7,48. As a result of the research, it was determined that while the level of health literacy increased, the health perception increased and the level of surgery-specific anxiety decreased. Accordingly, it is necessary to develop health literacy in order to increase the health perception and reduce the level of surgery-specific anxiety. In this regard, it may be recommended to plan and implement nursing interventions specific to the role of nurses as consultants and educator, and to conduct more research on the subject by increasing the number of samples in order to generalize the results of the researh.