Investigating the Correlation between Health Literacy and Mental Health and Quality of Life Indicators of Inactive Elderly to Lahijan City in 2021

Health literacy can affect the quality of life of the elderly due to its role in promoting appropriate decisions in the field of mental health. this study was conducted to investigate the correlation between health literacy and mental health and quality of life indicators of inactive elderly to Lahijan City in 2021.

In this descriptive-correlational study, 200 elderly people were selected from Lahijan city. Health Literacy Questionnaire (HELIA), Goldberg Mental Health Questionnaire (GQH-28) and Quality of Life Questionnaire (SF-12) were used to collect data. The data were analyzed by SPSS v.23 using Kolmogorov–Smirnov test (test K–S), T-Test, Analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical tests and pearson correlation coefficient were analyzed.

The results showed that the mean age of the elderly in the study was 64.9 years. The mean score of health literacy was 58.2 in terms of borderline health literacy, mental health 25.11 and quality of life 40.7 which were at the desired level and there was a statistically significant relationship between health literacy and mental health and quality of life indicators (P˂0.001).

Considering the relationship between health literacy and mental health and quality of life, it seems necessary to pay more attention to promoting health literacy in the elderly and planning to improve the effective factors in quality of life improvement programs.