The Relationship between Health Literacy and Preventive Behaviors of Soldiers

Adherence to preventive behaviors of people in a community affects the health of the people of that community. Performing these behaviors and determining their predictors in soldiers is very important because of the situation and conditions in which they are placed.

This study aimed to determine the relationship between health literacy and the preventive behaviors of soldiers.

This is a descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study and the research community consisted of soldiers during the necessity service period of the Armed Forces barracks in the Northwest of the country in the first half of 2020. Three hundred qualified soldiers were enrolled in the census. To collect data, questionnaires of soldiers’ demographic information, health literacy of the Iranian adult population, and a researcher-made questionnaire on preventive behaviors were used. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 23 using Pearson correlation confidence.

The percentage of the sing subjects was 84.3%, 38.8% had undergraduate education, and 80% were non-native with a mean age of 22.16±3.24 years. The level of health literacy of soldiers (62.08±12.93) was not enough and the level of preventive behaviors (12.69±5.66) was low. Based on the results, the relationship between health literacy and preventive behaviors (r = 0.163, P=0.006) was significant and direct. The relationship between marital status (P=0.046) and hospitality history (P=0.049) with health literacy was significant and the health literacy of married soldiers with a history of hospitalization was higher.

Given the importance of health literacy in predicting health behaviors and its direct and significant relationship with preventive behaviors, it is recommended to assess the health literacy for all soldiers at the beginning of the military service and consider training programs for its promotion in low-level cases.