Muhammad Yahya Noori, Mehak Kazi, Amna Shahid, Asima Faisal.
The Relationship of Health Literacy, Perceived Health Information Need and Preventive Health Related Behavior in Urban Karachi.
J Islamic Int Med Coll Jan ;10(3):210-3.

Objective: To determine the relationship of health literacy with perceived need of health information and health related behaviors in urban population of Karachi. Study Design: Cross sectional survey. Place and Duration of Study: Community based study carried out on the students of Institute of Business Management and Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases, Dow University of Health Sciences for four months during February to May 2015. Materials and Methods: A cross‐sectional survey was performed in Karachi using a 33 item validated questionnaire on 100 randomly selected subjects using simple random sampling. Descriptive and analytical data analyses were carried out using SPSS version 20. Linear regression was used to find the association between health literacy and perceived health information needs as well as preventive actions. The information regarding demographics was obtained using dichotomous and multichotomous items, health literacy, perceived health information needs and preventive actions was collected using Likert type scales. Results: The participants had a mean age of 27.8± 8.3 years with at least intermediate level education. The mean health literacy score of respondents was calculated to be11.14 ±2.84 on 19 point scale (Range 4‐16). On perceived health information needs, the mean score turned out to be 28.27 ± 8.52 on a 51 point scale (Range 13‐47). As for preventive health actions on a 48 point scale, the mean score was 21.47 ± 8.61 (Range 8‐44). Linear regression analysis showed a weak positive (r=0.383) relationship between health literacy and preventive health actions (β=9.25 R2=0.147, p< 0.05), however, a weak negative (r= ‐0.306) relationship between health literacy and perceived information needs (β 38.58 R2=‐ 0.094, p< 0.05). Conclusion: Health literacy has an association with preventive actions against different diseases, however it also decreases their feeling of need for more health education and may result in a false sense of security. It is important that proper literacy programs must be initiated to increase preventive measures against common diseases in the society, so that the burden and cost of these diseases can be minimized.

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