Coronavirus-related health literacy levels among school administrators and influencing factors

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Fatma Özlem Öztürk
  • Sibel Sönmez
  • Pınar Soylar
  • Orkan Okan
  • Kevin Dadaczynski

Our study aimed to determine the level of coronavirus-related health literacy among school administrators and the factors that influence this. The sample of this cross-sectional study consisted of 402 school administrators serving in primary, secondary and high schools in Ankara. The data were collected between September 2021 and February 2022 using the descriptive characteristics questionnaire and the Coronavirus-Related Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLS-COVID-Q22). It was seen that 64.4% of the participants were male, 34.6% were 40 years old or younger and 35.6% were working in primary schools; 77.6% of the participants had a sufficient, 16.2% had a problematic and 6.2% had an inadequate level of coronavirus-related health literacy. Age, gender, chronic disease status, type of school they work in, level of knowledge about coronavirus, level of confusion due to knowledge about coronavirus, willingness to be vaccinated, believing that vaccines are safe/effective/compatible with their religious beliefs were found to affect coronavirus-related health literacy (p < 0.05). Gender, age, information satisfaction on coronavirus, confusion due to information on coronavirus and 'Overall, I believe that vaccinations are effective' explained 24.9% of HLS-COVID-Q22 variance (Adjusted R 2 = 0.249, F = 13.080, p < 0.001). This study found the coronavirus-related health literacy level among school administrators to be sufficient. It found that their level of health literacy was affected by gender, age, chronic disease status, type of school they worked at, level of knowledge about coronavirus, level of confusion due to information about coronavirus, desire to be vaccinated and their thoughts about vaccines.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberdaad081
JournalHealth Promotion International
Volume38
Issue number4
Number of pages11
ISSN0957-4824
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.08.2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press.

Funding Information:
There is no funding for this research.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s).

Funding Information:
There is no funding for this research.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s).

    Research areas

  • COVID-19 pandemic, health literacy, health promotion, health promotion schools, vaccines
  • Health sciences

DOI