Individuals' health literacy level and their knowledge and practices with respect to rational drug use

Abstract

This descriptive study aimed to identify individuals' health literacy level and their knowledge and practices with respect to rational drug use. The study was conducted with 405 individuals aged 18 and above who applied to a hospital. Data were collected by using an introductory information form and the Adult Health Literacy Scale (AHLS). Data were analyzed by using the Mann-Whitney U test for comparing two groups and the Kruskal-Wallis H test for comparing the mean total scale scores of more than two groups. We found that participants' average age was 34.25 ± 14.8; 55.5% of them were female; 50.5% had university education or higher; 51% were married. Their mean AHLS score was 14.03 ± 4.32 over 23. Our study found that individuals that used non-prescribed drugs had a lower mean AHLS score (12.16 ± 4.00), and the individuals that read the drug prospectus (p = 0.000) and expiry date (p = 0.000) had higher mean AHLS scores. For those who changed the drug dose prescribed by a doctor (p = 0.001) and those who stopped medication when the disease symptoms were gone (p = 0.031), the mean AHLS scores were lower at a statistically significant level. We found that participants had a moderate level health literacy and there was a negatively significant relation between age and health literacy scores. The study results indicated that there was a significant relation between their knowledge and practices with respect to rational drug use and health literacy level. Our suggestion is to assess individuals' health literacy and to plan initiatives for increasing their awareness regarding rational drug use and health literacy.