The Level of Health Literacy of the Health Department Employees, one of the Social Determinants of Health: A descriptive-analytical, cross-sectional study

Social determinants play a major role in people's health. Accessing, understanding, appraising, and applying information about social determinants of health enable people to play an active role in creating a healthier environment for themselves, their families, and their communities. The present study aimed to determine the health literacy level in social determinants of health among employees of the Health Department of Arak University of Medical Sciences and its related factors.

The study was conducted as a descriptive-analytical cross-sectional survey study on 200 employees selected from Arak University of Medical Sciences in 2019, through the stratified sampling method. The data collection instrument was Health Literacy on Social Determinants of Health Questionnaire (HL-SDHQ). One-way analysis of variance, independent t-test, and linear regression were used to analyze the data through SPSS (v 16).

The participants’ health literacy was mostly moderate (67.5%) and only 19% of participants had the desired level of health literacy. Among the dimensions of health literacy, the understanding of information was more desirable. Among the demographic variables, age was predictor of health literacy (β = -0.28).

It is necessary to implement more specific educational sessions on how the social determinants affect people's health. Also, it is essential to train employees in executive strategies appropriate for their job duties to influence the determinants.