health literacy among adults in isfahan, iran

normal 0 false false false en-us x-none ar-sa microsoftinternetexplorer4 background: accessing to health information, getting informed about the health and illness issues is an important factor for health status. it is expected that having a good health requires using this type of information. having such active role in patient and healthy population needs higher level of health literacy. this study measured health literacy of adults in isfahan, iran using persian standardized version of newest vital sign (nvs) and short version of test of functional health literacy assessment (s-tofhla). methods: in a cross-sectional study, 525 adults (over 18 years) were enrolled in isfahan. the data collection was done by nvs and s-tofhla questionnaires which translated into persian and were standardized. findings: the mean age of the study subjects was 33.6 ± 12.5 years. according to s-tofhla, 46 . 5% of adults had adequate health literacy, 38% had borderline literacy and 15 . 5% had inadequate health literacy. with nvs, 25 . 5% of study subjects had inadequate health literacy, 36% had borderline literacy and 38.5% had adequate health literacy. the association between the results of the two questionnaires by the pearson correlation test r that this questionnaires were correlate (r = 0 . 72; p < 0.001). in this study, there was a statistically significant association between the educational level, age, gender, economical status and health literacy status. inadequate health literate was more likely to be older, less educated, woman and low income. conclusion: the results showed that the persian version of the s-tofhla in adults and the nvs for use in the persian adult population had adequate efficiency and reliability to be used. in the other hand, results of this study showed a wide range of adult in isfahan had inadequate and marginal health literacy. this suggested the need for greater attention to the issue of health literacy on health promotion programs .