Health Literacy and ''COVID-19 Anxiety'' in Iranian Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Research Center for Social Determinants of Health, Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, Jahrom, Iran

2 Department of Public Health, Khomein University of Medical Sciences, Khomein, Iran

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Covid-19 pandemic has led to a wide range of psychological disorders, including anxiety. Inadequate health literacy is associated with poor mental health. People with higher health literacy are more likely involve preventive behaviors. This study aimed to determine the correlation between health literacy and anxiety caused by covid-19 in adults.

 Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on adults over 18 years old in Jahorm city, Fars province, Iran, in 2021. A total of 197 participants were selected using multistage cluster random sampling. Demographic information and two standard questionnaires included Corona Disease Anxiety Scale (CDAS) and Health Literacy for Iranian Adults (HELIA) was used to collect data. The data was analyzed by SPSS 17.0 based descriptive statistics,  independent t-tests, and Pearson's correlation

Results: The mean raw score of total health literacy was 131.62±0.33, and the mean score converted to 100 was 74.72±15.46, which indicates that the health literacy of participating in the study was favorable. The results of Pearson's correlation coefficient showed that with the promotion of health literacy, the anxiety caused by covid-19 (r=-0.351, p<0.001), the psychological (r=-0.339, p<0.001) and physical (r=-0.323, p<0.001) dimensions, significantly decreased and improved. There was also a significant correlation between the reading (r= -0.200, p=0.005), understanding (r=-0.202, p=0.004), appraisal (r=-0.275, p<0.001), and decision (r=-0.383, p<0.001) dimensions with anxiety that caused by covid-19. 

Conclusion: The community's health literacy level can be an important factor in reducing anxiety caused by health problems such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

Keywords

Availability of data and materials: Data will be available upon request from the corresponding author
Conflicts of interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Conflicts of interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Ethical considerations: This article is derived from the research with code 400000185 that the Ethics Committee approved of Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, Code IR.JUMS.REC.1400.074. The study also complied with the Declaration of Helsinki. 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.

Funding: No financial support was received for this study.

Authors’ contributions: Nader Sharifi conceptualized the study and led the project and writing. All authors contributed to the development of the coding scheme. Fatemeh Alsadat Hossaini conducted the coding and analyses and drafted the methods. Fatemeh Darya and Vahid Rahmanian reviewed the codes and results. All authors contributed to the writing and revision and approved the final version of the manuscript

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