Health Literacy Related to Cervical Cancer among Women Referring to Health Centers of Yazd, Iran

Background aim: High health literacy enhances informed decisionmaking for cervical cancer screening (i.e., a Pap smear) among women. The present study aimed to determine the health literacy related to cervical cancer in women referring to health centers of Yazd, Iran. Methods: This crosssectional study was conducted on a total of 800 women in 2018. The study participants were selected using systematic random sampling. To collect data a valid and reliable health literacy questionnaire was used to address different aspects of cervical cancer health literacy (i.e., accessibility, reading, understanding, appraising, and decisionmaking). Data analysis was carried out using Pearson’s correlation, independent samples ttest, and multivariate analysis of variance with SPSS software (version 20). Results: The mean age of the participants was 35.85±7.99 years. The mean score of the overall health literacy was reported as 67.46±15.59 and the mean score of the subscales of accessibility, reading, understanding, appraising, and decisionmaking were 13.34±4.25, 13.29±3.06, 11.25±3.56, 12.72±13, and 16.84±6.16, respectively. Also, there was a significant relationship between health literacy with age, employment status, income level, and daily consumption of fruits and vegetables (p lt;0.001). Conclusion: The present study indicated that women’s level of health literacy in terms of cervical cancer was low in Yazd; therefore, health care providers should pay special attention to women using modern educational methods as well as appropriate educational technologies in order to enhance women’s health literacy regarding cervical cancer.