Health Personnel’s Knowledge Level on Health Literacy

Aim: Health literacy is common concern of everyone, especially healthcare professionals. A field study including health professionals working on different fields in Malatya and Kütahya is planned in order to evaluate the knowledge and awareness of healthcare professionals on health literacy. Methods: A total of 514 healthcare professionals, 333 from Turgut Özal Medical Center in Malatya and 181 from Dumlupınar University Evliya Çelebi Education and Research Hospital in Kütahya were interviewed in this study. First question asked was “Do you know health literacy concept?”. It’s been asked where they have heard the health literacy concept for the first time, if they know the basic principles of health literacy and for whom health literacy is to the participants who answered yes to the first question. Its been asked if healthcare professionals evaluate health literacy of their patients during their daily work and if they give advices on healthcare resources. Results from both cities were evaluated together. Results: 471 (%91.6) of healthcare professionals answered no when asked if they know what health literacy concept is and only 43 (%8.4) said yes. 30 (%69.8) of these 43 participants said health literacy is for people who aren’t healthcare professionals and 13(%30.2) of them said its for healthcare professionals. Conclusions: We observed in our study that healthcare professionals, especially medical doctors don’t have enough knowledge on health literacy. Awareness and knowledge on health literacy was similarly low in both cities. Health literacy concept, which is developed for patients, is not well known by healthcare professionals and must be dealt seriously.