Mental Health Literacy and Some Factors affecting it Among Referring People to Addiction Treatment Centers: A Cross-sectional Study in Iran

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health, Qaen Faculty of Medical Sciences, Cardiovascular Diseases Research Center, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.

2 Department of Nursing, Qaen Faculty of Medical Sciences, Student Research Committee, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.

3 Department of Psychology, Islamic Azad University, Qaen, Iran.

4 English language Department, School of Medicine, Kurdistan Medical Sciences University, Sanandaj, Iran.

Abstract

Background and Objective: Given the increasing prevalence of addiction and the importance of assessing the level of mental health literacy among addicted individuals and the limited reports in this regard, the present study aimed to assess mental health literacy and some of the factors affecting it among addicts.

Materials and Methods: The present study was a cross-sectional analytical study. Two hundred thirty addicts referred to addiction treatment centers in Qaen, South Khorasan, Iran, were selected to participate in the survey through one-stage cluster sampling in 2024. The data collection instrument included demographic and contextual characteristics, and Mental Health Literacy Questionnaires (MHLQ). The data were analyzed using SPSS version 23, descriptive statistics, and logistic regression. 

Results: The mean and standard deviation of the mental health literacy score was 68.258±3.247 out of 145, which was low. Occupation, family economic status, smoking status, and amount of substance used were among the factors affecting mental health literacy.

Conclusion: Mental health literacy was lower among retired addicts, those with families with unfavorable economic status, addicts who smoke, and addicts with high amounts of substance use. It is suggested to pay more attention to the addicts in designing educational programs to improve their mental health literacy.

Keywords

Acknowledgments: The authors thank and appreciate all the officials who helped the researchers with the present study. In addition, the ethics code for the study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Birjand University of Medical Sciences, IR.BUMS.REC.1403.226.


Availability of data and materials: Data availability The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. 


Conflict of interest: All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. 


Consent for publication: Not applicable.


Ethics approval and consent to participate: All materials and the procedure of this study adhered to the Declaration of Helsinki to this effect, and it was approved by Ethics approval The Ethics Committee of Birjand University of Medical Sciences (IR.BUMS.REC.1403.226). Informed consent to participate were also obtained from all participants before the commencement of the study, which they signed to indicate their willingness to participate in the study.


Funding:  None.


Author Contributions: Rahman Panahi: Writing – original draft, Validation, Methodology, Formal analysis, Data curation, Conceptualization. Elaheh Razavi: Writing – review & editing, Validation, Methodology, Mahmood Rajabpoor: Formal analysis, Data curation Conceptualization, Writing – review& editing. Mohiadin Amjadian: Writing – original draft, Writing – review& editing, Formal analysis, Validation, Methodology.

 

Open Access Policy: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Journal of Health Literacy

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 01 June 2025

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