Determination of Health Literacy Levels and Effecting Factors of Elderly Living in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus/Dikmen Region

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: In this study, it was aimed to determine effect on some factors and the health literacy levels among elderly people, living at home in the Dikmen of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. MATERIALS AND METHODS:The research was conducted during the home visit between April 2–May 30, 2018 as a cross-sectional type descriptive study. The sample consisted of the elderly people (n=134) who were determined using the simple random sampling method and agreed to participate in the study. The data were collected with the “Socio-Demographic Questionnaire” and “Adult Health Literacy Scale” developed by Sezer and Kadıoğlu (2014) after. SPSS 21.00 statistical program was used for data analyze. RESULTS: 60.4% of the participants were women and the age average was 72.20±6.23. The total score mean taken from the scale was 10.51±4.15. 86.6% of the participants stated that they did not know the health screening times and 61.2% did not know the patient rights. A statistically significant relationship was found only between age (x2=10.047; p=0.001) and educational status (x2=9.536; p=0.023) according to score means. CONCLUSION: In this study, it was observed that the health literacy levels of the elderly people were not sufficient, they had difficulties in using health services and their knowledge about chronic disease management was not good. It is recommended that nurses working with elderly individuals should first evaluate the health literacy status of the elderly, and organize nursing interventions and health education activities accordingly.