The Effect of Health Literacy Levels onSuccessful of Smoking Cessation Therapy: ASurvey Study

Abstract

Aim: In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the effect of the health literacy levels of patients givensmoking cessation treatment on the success of smoking cessation treatment. Methods: In this study, 152 participants between the ages of 18-70 applied to a tertiary hospital smokingcessation outpatient clinic. The Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence was used to determine thelevel of cigarette addiction of the participants, and the European Health Literacy Scale was used toevaluate the levels of health literacy.Results: When the health literacy levels of the participants with cigarette addiction were evaluated, 38(25%) were inadequate, 64 (42.1%) were problematic. When the participants' smoking cessation statusand general health literacy levels were compared, it was found to be statistically significant. It wasdetermined that as the health literacy level increased, the success rates of individuals increased insmoking cessation therapy.Conclusions: We have shown that increasing the level of health literacy is effective in increasing thesuccess of smoking cessation treatment. Increasing health literacy should be part of the fight againstsmoking. This effect should be demonstrated by future studies on large populations.