Abstract

Background: Health literacy in the 21st century is an issue for global debate, which has also introduced a number of factors including an increase in non-communicable diseases. The use of mass communication, especially the Internet has resulted in increased attention on the importance of health literacy. Due to the importance of health literacy of women, the purpose of this study is to assess health literacy in women subscribing to health centers in the border of Yazd. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on 250 women referred to health centers in the periphery of Yazd city, they were selected using simple random sampling method, and data was collected using a standard questionnaire of functional health literacy in adults. Collected information was analyzed by the SPSS18 software and appropriate non-parametric tests. Results: Most participants' were of ages between 18 - 30 years. Questions were administered in the areas of health literacy, access area, information access, information understanding, judgment and assessment. Results indicated that 25.2, 56.6, and 19.6% were good, but the percentage of women in area judging from collated information in this category was not good. Regarding use of information, 84.4% of women were in the middle class, but none of them was classified in good category. Conclusion: Health literacy of women in general was unacceptable, and recommendations were made to establish continuous training for women to improve their views. Also consideration should be given to centers to plan the transformation of health literacy which has been launched, to increase the Health literacy of the population being studied as recipients of health services.

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