Abstract:

Objective: Parents' health literacy is important to ensure children's well-being. However, many parents suffer from insufficient health literacy. In this study, we aimed to determine the health literacy levels of parents who applied to a tertiary pediatric hospital's general pediatric outpatient clinic. Materials and Methods: This study is a prospective, cross-sectional study. The Turkish health literacy-32 scale and sociodemographic survey results of 71 parents who applied to the pediatric outpatient clinic between the specified dates were evaluated. Results: The median TSOY-32 general index of the parents was 33.63 and the median value was 33.30. According to the results of this level, our study group is in the adequate health literacy category. When evaluated according to sub-categories, 37 (52.1%) of the parents had adequate and excellent health literacy, while 34 (48%) had insufficient and problematic limited literacy. Conclusion: In our study, the health literacy level of only one of both parents was found to be adequate and excellent. The health literacy of parents is an important factor for a healthy society. For this reason, it is very important to obtain basic strategies to improve two-way communication with healthcare professionals.

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