Evaluat？on of health l？teracy and appropriateness of the educat？onal materials to the health literacy of the pat？ents who applied to the healthcare centers

Aim: The study was conducted to determine health literacy of the patients who applied to a foundation university and a state hospital the healthcare centers and evaluation of the appropriateness of educational materials that have been used in these centers to the health literacy. Methods: This study is a descriptive and cross-sectional type research. A total of 688 patients who were referred to foundation University Hospital and the State hospital's internal medicine outpatient clinics were included in the study. Data was obtained via using questionnaire to evaluate health literacy, General Health Survey, “Evaluation of the Written Materials Appropriateness” form to evaluate available patient educational materials in healthcare centers, DISCERN (Quality Criteria for Consumer Health Information) tool to determine reliability and information quality of the education materials. Results: The mean age of the patients was 46.21±15.76, 72.2% were married and 67.6% were women, 44.8% are not working and 33% are less than the income expenditure. It was found that 40.2% of the patients evaluated their health literacy level as poor and very poor; 52.5% know how to use computer; one in third of them were always using internet to reach health information; the majority of patients stated that they receiving help from others for reading and writing activities. It was determined that 68.9% of the patients were diagnosed with a disease, 67.7% were hospitalized once, the majority used drugs and 56.1% were given a written education material. In general, mean score of patient responses to the activities related health literacy was high. It was determined that the health literacy scores of patients with low education, low income, poor / very poor health status and high risk were lower (p<0.05). It was determined that 40% of the written education materials were not suitable. Conclusion: It has been determined that the general health status is poor, the level of education and literacy are low, and the patients aged 60 and over are at risk for health literacy. It might be suggested that these patients be supported in terms of health literacy and retraining of educational materials