Research article

Relation between Health Literacy Levels, Hypertension Awareness and Control among Primary-secondary School Teachers in Turkey

  • Received: 10 March 2017 Accepted: 26 June 2017 Published: 30 June 2017
  • Objective: Health literacy plays a critical role in chronic disease self-management. This study aimed to determine the relation between health literacy levels, hypertension awareness and control among primary-secondary school teachers in Turkey. Materials and Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional research was conducted among school teachers with the participation of 500 volunteer teachers of both genders. The response rate was 86.2%. To determine health literacy levels, the Newest Vital Sign Scale and Blood Pressure Concept Test were used. Results: The mean scores of all individuals were 2.12 ± 1.82 over six points although this showed “limited” levels of health literacy. The mean scores obtained from the scale were 2.13 ± 1.83 in non-hypertensives, while it was 2.06 ± 1.77 in hypertensives. Nonetheless, disease knowledge and awareness were low in teachers. Adequate health literacy levels were low according to disease awareness and control. The measured health literacy levels of teachers didn’t overlap with their own assessments about health literacy skills. Recommendations: Limited health literacy levels in educators gave an impression that our education system was poor in terms of health education programs.

    Citation: Gülay Yilmazel, Fevziye Çetinkaya. Relation between Health Literacy Levels, Hypertension Awareness and Control among Primary-secondary School Teachers in Turkey[J]. AIMS Public Health, 2017, 4(4): 314-325. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2017.4.314

    Related Papers:

  • Objective: Health literacy plays a critical role in chronic disease self-management. This study aimed to determine the relation between health literacy levels, hypertension awareness and control among primary-secondary school teachers in Turkey. Materials and Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional research was conducted among school teachers with the participation of 500 volunteer teachers of both genders. The response rate was 86.2%. To determine health literacy levels, the Newest Vital Sign Scale and Blood Pressure Concept Test were used. Results: The mean scores of all individuals were 2.12 ± 1.82 over six points although this showed “limited” levels of health literacy. The mean scores obtained from the scale were 2.13 ± 1.83 in non-hypertensives, while it was 2.06 ± 1.77 in hypertensives. Nonetheless, disease knowledge and awareness were low in teachers. Adequate health literacy levels were low according to disease awareness and control. The measured health literacy levels of teachers didn’t overlap with their own assessments about health literacy skills. Recommendations: Limited health literacy levels in educators gave an impression that our education system was poor in terms of health education programs.


    加载中
    [1] Zarcadoolas C, Pleasant A, Greer DS (2005) Understanding health literacy: An expanded model. Health Promot Int 20: 195-203. doi: 10.1093/heapro/dah609
    [2] Bilir N (2014) Health literacy. Turk J Public Health 12: 61-68.
    [3] Joyner-Grantham JN, Mount DL, McCorkle OD, et al. (2009) Self-reported influences of hopelessness, health literacy, lifestyle action, and patient inertia on blood pressure control in a hypertensive emergency department population. Am J Med Sci 338: 368-372. doi: 10.1097/MAJ.0b013e3181b473dc
    [4] Pandit AU, Tang JW, Bailey SC, et al. (2009) Education, literacy, and health: Mediating effects on hypertension knowledge and control. Patient Educ Couns 75: 381-385. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2009.04.006
    [5] Li X, Ning N, Hao Y, et al. (2013) Health literacy in rural areas of China: Hypertension knowledge survey. Int J Environ Res Public Health 10: 1125-1138. doi: 10.3390/ijerph10031125
    [6] Powers BJ, Olsen MK, Oddone EZ (2008) Literacy and blood pressure – do healthcare systems influence this relationship? A cross-sectional study. BMC Health Serv Res 8: 1-9. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-8-1
    [7] Brook U, Galili A (2001) Knowledge and attitudes of high school teachers towards pupil suffering from chronic disease. Patient Educ Couns 43: 37-42. doi: 10.1016/S0738-3991(00)00148-8
    [8] Attia ZT (2005) Self-reported knowledge and pattern of physical activity among male school students and their teachers in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. J Family Community Med 12: 19-25.
    [9] Weiss BD, Mays MZ, Martz W (2005) Quick assessment of literacy in primary care: The Newest Vital Sign. Ann Fam Med 3: 514-522. doi: 10.1370/afm.405
    [10] Ozdemir H, Alper Z, Uncu Y (2010) Health literacy among adults: a study from Turkey. Health Educ Res 25: 464-477. doi: 10.1093/her/cyp068
    [11] Davis TC, Long S, Jackson R, et al. (1993) Rapid estimate of adult literacy in medicine: a shortened screening instrument. Fam Med 25: 391-395.
    [12] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2003) JNC-7 Express: The Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure. NIH Publication, p. 2-3.
    [13] Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/bloodpressure/signs_symptoms.htm.
    [14] Ikinci S, Eser S, Piyal B, et al. (2012) Health literacy status of the students in health- two-year degree (Sample of Ankara University). XV. National Public Health Congress Presentation Book, p. 674-676.
    [15] Jovic-Vranes A, Bjegovic-Mikanovic V (2012) Which women patients have better health literacy in Serbia? Patient Educ Couns 89: 209-212. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2012.06.001
    [16] Kirk JK, Grzywacz JG, Arcury TA, et al. (2012) Performance of health literacy tests among older adults with diabetes. J Gen Intern Med 27: 534-540. doi: 10.1007/s11606-011-1927-y
    [17] Shah LC, West P, Bremmeyr K, et al. (2010) Health literacy instrument in family medicine: The "Newest Vital Sign" ease of use and correlates. J Am Board Fam Med 23: 195-203. doi: 10.3122/jabfm.2010.02.070278
    [18] Adams RJ, Appleton SL, Hill CL (2009) Risks associated with low functional health literacy in an Australian population. Med J Aust 191: 530-534.
    [19] Tokuda Y, Doba N, Butler JP, et al. (2009) Health literacy and physical and psychological wellbeing in Japanese adults. Patient Educ Couns 75: 411-417. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2009.03.031
    [20] Boxell EM, Smith SG, Morris M, et al. (2012) Increasing awareness of gynecological cancer symptoms and reducing barriers to medical help seeking: Does health literacy play a role? J Health Commun Int Perspect 17: 265-279. doi: 10.1080/10810730.2012.712617
    [21] Sahm LJ, Wolf MS, Curtis LM, et al. (2012) Prevalence of limited health literacy among Irish adults. J Health Commun Int Perspect 17: 100-108. doi: 10.1080/10810730.2012.718041
    [22] Zoellner J, You W, Connell C, et al. (2011) Health literacy is associated with healthy eating index scores and sugar-sweetened beverage intake: Findings from the rural lower Mississippi Delta. J Am Diet Assoc 111: 1012-1020. doi: 10.1016/j.jada.2011.04.010
    [23] Patel PJ, Steinberg J, Goveas R, et al. (2011) Testing the utility of the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) health literacy assessment tool in older African – American patients. Patient Educ Couns 85: 505-507. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2011.03.014
    [24] Ko Y, Balasubramanian TD, Wong L, et al. (2013) Health literacy and its association with disease knowledge and control in patients with hypertension in Singapore. Int J Cardiol 108: 116-117.
    [25] Persell SD, Osborn CY, Richard R, et al. (2007) Limited health literacy is a barrier to medication reconciliation in ambulatory care. J Gen Intern Med 22: 1523-1526. doi: 10.1007/s11606-007-0334-x
    [26] Morris NS, MacLean CD, Chew LD, et al. (2006) The single item literacy screener: Evaluation of a brief instrument to identify limited reading ability. BMC Fam Pract 7: 1-7. doi: 10.1186/1471-2296-7-1
    [27] Marks JR, Schectman JM, Groninger H, et al. (2010) The association of health literacy and socio-demographic factors with medication knowledge. Patient Educ Couns 78: 372-376. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2009.06.017
    [28] Wallace LS, Rogers ES, Roskos SE, et al. (2006) Brief report: Screening items to identify patients with limited health literacy skills. J Gen Intern Med 21: 874-877. doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00532.x
    [29] Unal B, Ergor G, Horasan GD, et al. (2011) Turkey Chronic Diseases and Risk Factors Prevalence Study. T.C. Ministry of Health, Turkey Public Health Institution, Ankara. Available from: http://sbu.saglik.gov.tr/Ekutuphane/kitaplar/ khrfat.pdf (accessed 20 February 2014).
    [30] Turkish Hypertension Prevalence Study-2 (PatenT2) (2012) Turkish Hypertension and Kidney Disease Society. Available from: http://www.turkhipertansiyon.org/ppt/ PatenT2.ppt (Accessed May 13, 2013).
    [31] Jenson A, Omar AL, Omar MA, et al. (2011) Assessment of hypertension control in a district of Mombasa, Kenya. Glob Public Health 6: 293-306. doi: 10.1080/17441692.2010.510478
    [32] Gee ME, Bienek A, McAlister FA, et al. (2012) Factors associated with lack of awareness and uncontrolled high blood pressure among Canadian adults with hypertension. Can J Cardiol 28: 375-382. doi: 10.1016/j.cjca.2011.12.012
    [33] Egan BM, Zhao Y, Axon RN (2010) US trends in prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension, 1988–2008. JAMA 303: 2043-2050. doi: 10.1001/jama.2010.650
    [34] Gazmararian JA, Kripalani S, Miller MJ, et al. (2006) Factors associated with medication refill adherence in cardiovascular-related diseases: A focus on health literacy. J Gen Intern Med 21: 1215-1221. doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00591.x
    [35] Schillinger D, Grumbach K, Piette J, et al. (2002) Association of health literacy with diabetes outcomes. JAMA 288: 475-482. doi: 10.1001/jama.288.4.475
    [36] Ishikawa H, Yano E (2008) Patient health literacy and participation in the health-care process. Health Expect 11: 113-122. doi: 10.1111/j.1369-7625.2008.00497.x
  • Reader Comments
  • © 2017 the Author(s), licensee AIMS Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
通讯作者: 陈斌, bchen63@163.com
  • 1. 

    沈阳化工大学材料科学与工程学院 沈阳 110142

  1. 本站搜索
  2. 百度学术搜索
  3. 万方数据库搜索
  4. CNKI搜索

Metrics

Article views(4291) PDF downloads(1202) Cited by(6)

Article outline

Figures and Tables

Tables(4)

Other Articles By Authors

/

DownLoad:  Full-Size Img  PowerPoint
Return
Return

Catalog