The Impact of Health Literacy on Health-Related Behaviors against the Coronavirus in Shiraz City

The outbreak of coronavirus has brought new attention to health-related behaviors. Health literacy can be considered as one of the most important indicators affecting health-related behaviors. In the present study, an attempt was made to investigate the relationship between health literacy dimensions and health-related behaviors against the coronavirus. For this purpose, 385 people were surveyed from the 18- to 65-year-old population of Shiraz by the cluster sampling method and using a questionnaire. The findings showed that the highest health literacy score of the respondents was related to the dimension of understanding. The findings also showed that health-related behaviors against coronavirus were at a high level among about 35% of respondents. The multivariate regression analysis showed that the variables of age, sex, activity status, understanding and decision-making dimensions of health literacy had a statistically significant effect on health-related behaviors. Health-related behaviors increase with age and are more common among women than men. Health-related behaviors increased significantly with an increase in health literacy in both dimensions of understanding and decision-making. Promoting the health literacy of people in the society in its various dimensions can be effective in controlling and preventing the outbreak of infectious diseases.