Determination of the relationship of health literacy level and healthy living behaviors of teachers in Balçova district of Izmir province

INTRODUCTION AND AIM: Today, the concept of health; It does not only consist of eliminating diseases, but also aims to provide individuals with healthy lifestyle behaviors in order to maintain, protect and improve their health. Therefore, in order for people to be healthy, they need to adopt and practice a healthy lifestyle. While the importance of a totally healthy lifestyle is undisputed, studies make it clear that adopting just a few healthy behaviors confers a significant benefit on disease risk. For this reason, the main factor in the development of health is seen as individuals' gaining healthy lifestyle behaviors. A healthy lifestyle, on the other hand, requires knowing, understanding and using health-protective information and how to benefit from health care services. The ability to access, understand and use this health information is health literacy. The aim of the study is to determine the relationship between health literacy level and healthy life behaviors of teachers working in kindergarten, primary, secondary and high schools in Balçova district of İzmir. METHOD: It is a cross-sectional study. The universe of the research consists of teachers working in all public kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools and high schools in the Balçova district in the 2018-2019 academic year. The universe size is 584 people. All schools that were not selected as samples were included in the study. A health literacy scale and a questionnaire prepared by the researcher were applied to all participants who volunteered to participate in the research. Dependent variables, healthy living behaviors; healthy diet, physical activity, smoking status. Independent variables; sociodemographic characteristics, health literacy and other variables. The data collection tool was filled in by the teachers in the school environment under the observation of the researcher in March-April-May 2019. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 21.0. Descriptive findings; Percentage distributions for categorical variables are presented as mean±standard deviation for continuous variables. Chi-square as a univariate analysis in determining the relationships of independent variables with health behaviors; Logistic Regression Analysis was used as multivariate analysis. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated to determine the reliability of the scale. RESULTS: 512 people (87.6%) were reached in the study. The mean age is 45.7±0.3 (23-64). Of the teachers, 73.8% are women, 81.0% are married, 87.7% are undergraduates, and 90.1% are nuclear families. Considering the school distribution, it is seen that the majority (36.7%) work in secondary school. 65.3% of the participants stated that their income was equal to their expenses, 17.1% stated that they did not have children. The health literacy level of the teachers participating in the study was determined as 9.6% insufficient, 42.2% problematic-limited, 30.7% sufficient, 17.5% excellent. When we evaluate the insufficient and problematic-limited level together, it can be said that roughly half of the research group (51.8%) has limited health literacy. The frequency of healthy eating of the teachers participating in the study was 43.2%, the frequency of those who did adequate physical activity was 16.0%, and the frequency of those who smoked at least one cigarette per day was 24.0%. In multivariate analysis; 2.1 times (OR=2.123, 95%CI=1.341-3.360) for men, 1.8 times (OR=1.794, 95%CI=1.009-3.190) for unmarried men, 2.4 times (OR=2.422, 95%CI=1.615-) for those with a family history of smoking. 3,632) have a high risk of smoking. Having children was found to be protective in terms of smoking (OR=0.455, 95%CI=0.248-0.836). The risk of not eating healthy is 2 times higher (OR=2.044, 95%CI=1.258-3.322) in men. Compared to those with excellent SOY level, those with insufficient-limited SCI were 2.7 times (OR=2.693, 95%CI=1.273-5.695), 3.1 times (OR=3.175,b 95%CI=1.369-7.367) in those with sufficient SAD, physical inactivity- low activity risk is high. CONCLUSION: More than half of the teachers have limited health literacy. By increasing the health literacy level of teachers, it can be ensured that they gain physical activity habits and become role models in this regard. In this way, it may be possible to maintain regular physical activity. Research in the field of health literacy, which is a relatively new subject, will provide a better understanding of the related factors and guide the interventions to be made in this regard. KEYWORDS: health literacy, health behaviors, teacher