HIV / AIDS health literacy and Its Related Factors: a cross-sectional study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 MPH Student, School of Public Health and safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

2 Professor of Health Education & Health Promotion, School of Public Health and safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

3 Professor of Infectious Diseases, School of Public Health and safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

4 Assistant Professor of Health Education & Health Promotion, School of Public Health and safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Background and Objective: Assessing the level of AIDS literacy and recognizing the predictors of health literacy in this field is essential for the prevention and control of this disease in society .The aim of this research was to mesure level of HIV/AIDS health literacy among young monitored who worked in health centers of Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

Materials & Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive research conducted on 424 young people in the south of Tehran in 2021. Stratified random sampling was used. Informed consent, voluntary participation, and 18-29 age ranges were the criteria to enter the study. A standard HIV/AIDS health literacy instrument, whose reliability and validity had been established, were used to assess health literacy. Data was descriptively and analytically analyzed through SPSS16 based on the independent t-test and one-way ANOVA.   

Results: The average HIV/AIDS health literacy rate among the youth was 11.52. Almost 28% of participantes were adequately literate and 72% had inadequate literate. The relationship among gender (p=0.035), marital status (p=0.001), and health literacy was significant. These people with the following characteristics were more HIV/AIDS health literate than other groups: males, 20-25 age group, singles, and people with bachelor’s degree. The relationship among ethnicity (p=0.445), socioeconomic status (p=0.202), and HIV/AIDS health literacy was not statistically significant.

Conclusion: A third of the sample was adequately HIV/AIDS literate. Educational intervention and information accessibility can be crucial steps in promoting people’s health literacy regarding this degenerative disease.   

Keywords

Availability of data and materials: The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of participants, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Conflict of interests: There was no conflict of interests among the researchers.

Ethical considerations: Informed consent was obtained from all participants. They had the right not to participate in the research and were assured that their names would not be used in any part of the research.

Financial resources: The researchers did not rely on financial assistance from any organization.

 Authors' contribution: SR and FS contributed to project conception, MGh and HH did the data acquisition; FS and MGh did data analysis, literature review, and wrote the manuscript; SR and HH critically revised the successive drafts. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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