Health Literacy Status of the Patients’ Informal Caregivers; Turkey Example

Introduction: Health literacy affects the ability to access and use the right information. The purpose of our study was to evaluation of health literacy status of patients' informal caregivers in a research hospital services. Methods: This study was conducted as a descriptive study. The caregivers of 228 patients who volunteered to participate in the study on March 1, 2016 in all the services of a hospital. Results: The caregivers' knowledge about important decision-making information as well as their health-related behavior and staying healthy. In the culture of Turkey, particularly in chronic and long-term diseases, there is a care system mostly consisting of family members or relatives. The health literacy of patients' caregivers related to treatment, diagnosis, medicine, care and education materials throughout the treatment is affected by the fact that discharge education is not at the desired level in Turkey. This study has provided important results, such as caregivers' lack of adequate information about patient-related procedures, inadequate communication with the healthcare team, the lack of information on patient rights, and the lack of reading complete documents of the patient's illness. In the analysis of simple health responsibility behavior regarding the patient and daily life, it has been determined that the educational level of the caregivers is an important factor. Conclusion: We recommend that strategies be urgently determined and passed on to raise Turkey's health literacy level.