Determining the health literacy levels of teachers: The case of Isparta

Health literacy, being one of the types of literacy and having been mentioned many times in recent years, can be defined having the knowledge, motivation, and skills to access, understand, evaluate and apply health-related information in order to make decisions about health services and health promotion. This study aims to determine the health literacy levels of teachers working in public schools in Isparta. The research was conducted with 431 Primary and Secondary Education teachers working at state schools in Merkez district, Isparta during the first two weeks of August in 2022. The Turkish Health Literacy Scale-32 was used to determine health literacy levels. This study identified the highest knowledge levels of teachers about health literacy is in the dimension of "Using and applying health-related information" in the field of "Treatment and Service", while the dimension with the lowest level of knowledge is related to "Protection from Diseases/Health-Promotion" being related to Assessment of Health-Related Information. The results of the correlation analysis applied to the dimensions show there were significant positive correlations among all dimensions. There are significant differences regarding findings on age, gender and being vaccinated while there was no significant difference among marital status, professional experience, educational status and participants' institutions. This study suggests conducting comprehensive research including other occupational groups will be beneficial in terms of gaining knowledge about society, and students are to be informed about health literacy through teachers having a high level of knowledge about health literacy in cooperation with the MONE and other stakeholders.