Determination of health literacy level of patients' who apply to family health centers: Kahramanmaras province example

Health Literacy has become an increasingly important concept in the European Union and Turkey as it is in the whole world. The determination of the level of health literacy of individuals is very important in terms of shedding light on the work to be done in this area. This study was conducted by using convenience sampling method for individuals who applied to Family Health Centers in Kahramanmaraş province center districts between 01.10.2015-31.12.2015 to determine health literacy levels of patients who applied to Family Health Centers. A questionnaire consisting of two sections was used in the research. The first part is sociodemographic variables in which there are various questions such as age, gender, marital status, educational status, occupation and monthly income of the family. In the second part, a 47-item The European Health Literacy Survey (HLS-EU) survey, which was developed within the framework of the European Health Literacy Project, was used. As a result of the sample calculation, it was decided that the research should be carried out on a minimum of 384 people and it is aimed to reach to 500 people by considering the non-response rate. A survey of 500 people was conducted in the survey, but 421 questionnaires were available for various reasons. As a result of the research, 50.6% of the respondents were female, 33.5% were between the age group 25-34, 77.2% of them were married, 26.1% were high school graduates and it is understood that 48.9% served as civil servants. As a result of the research, the average health literacy index of the participants was found as 33.97 ± 7.23. It was determined that 12.8% of the participants had inadequate health literacy, 35.4% had problem-limited health literacy, 39.2% had adequate health literacy and 12.6% had excellent health literacy.