Attributes of Organizational Health Literacy in Health Care Centers in Iran: A Qualitative Content Analysis Study

Organizational Health Literacy (OHL) is described as a new concept to remote health organizations to implement practices, policies, and systems that make it easier for patients to use, understand, and navigate health information to take care their own health. In Iran, there is no consensus on the attributes of OHL, and its practical implications and scope have not been evaluated. This manuscript is one of the first attempts to explain the attributes of the OHL in health care centers in Iran. This study is a content analysis survey, which was guided by the attributes of the OHL provided by Brach et al. and 26 semi-structured interviews were conducted with Iranian health professionals and employees of healthcare organizations from June 2020 to January 2021. A data analysis was performed using the MAXQDA 10 software. Across the study, ten sub-themes, 21 subcategories, and 67 codes emerged. The 10 main attributes of OHL were management, integration of health literacy in the organization, workforce, participation, range of HL skills, HL strategies, access, media variety, the role of the organization in crisis, and costs. These attributes may guide the planning of health care centers improvements and have the potential to promote health service reforms and public health policy

Relations between Breastfeeding Self-efficacy and Maternal Health Literacy among Pregnant Women

Introduction: Breastfeeding self-efficacy show self-confidence and the ability of mothers to perform breastfeeding and maternal health literacy, ability of women to gain access to, understand, and use information in ways that promote and maintain their health and their children. Aim: this study was Measuring Associations between self-efficacy breastfeeding and maternal health literacy. Methods: This descriptive study was carried out in Mashhad health center in 2015. 185 pregnant women with first experience were selected randomly. Data were collected through health literacy maternal questionnaire and self-efficacy breastfeeding Fox & Dennis questionnaire and analyzed by descriptive and statistical tests in the SPSS/18. Results: The mean score of women's self-efficacy breastfeeding and standard deviation were 120.5 and 11.7 respectively and the mean maternal health literacy was 42.7±5.6. The results regression showed that the only variable that significantly associated with breastfeeding self-efficacy was maternal health literacy. Implications for practice: According to the results of this study, maternal health literacy must be raised to enhance breastfeeding self-efficacy, which could lead to an improvement in maternal breastfeeding in the society

Measuring Maternal Health Literacy in Pregnant Women Referred to the Healthcare Centers of Mashhad, Iran, in 2015

Background & aim: Maternal health literacy is defined as the cognitive and social skills determining the ability to get access to, understand, and use information to promote mothers’ health and that of their children. This study aimed to investigate maternal health literacy in pregnant women referred to the healthcare centers of Mashhad, Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 185 randomly selected pregnant women referred to the healthcare centers of Mashhad, Iran, in 2015. Data were collected using demographic and maternal health literacy questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), independent t-test, and Pearson's correlation coefficient test in SPSS, version 16.0. Results: The mean score of maternal health literacy was 42.7±5.6 (out of 56). There was a significant relationship between maternal health literacy score and women’s educational level (

The predictors of the use of complementary and alternative medicine among type 2 diabetes patients based on the health belief model

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the predictors of the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in patients with type 2 diabetes based on the health belief model (HBM). METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed in 2019 (from April to September) on 837 type 2 diabetic patients by multi-stage sampling method. Valid and reliable tools (questionnaire of using CAM modalities based on the HBM, self-care behavior section, and use of CAM section) were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 24. RESULTS: Based on the results, the constructs of the HBM were able to predict 37% of the variance of behavior using CAM. Constructs of perceived threat, perceived barriers, and cues to action had the most significant effect on predicting the behavior of using CAM (p < 0.001). In this study, the mean (±SD) of patients’ self-care behaviors were 26.72 (±3.21) (out of a score of 40). Based on the results of the Pearson correlation, a significant positive correlation was observed between perceived threat (r = 0.374) and cues to action (r = 0.303) with using CAM modalities (p < 0.001). There was also a significant negative correlation between perceived barriers and using of CAM (r = −0.589, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Based on the obtained results, the HBM is useful in predicting the use of CAM, and due to the significant impact constructs of perceived threat, perceived barriers, and cues to action, it is better to pay more attention to these constructs in educational programs for patients with type 2 diabetes

Review of Organizational Health Literacy Practice at Health Care Centers: Outcomes, Barriers and Facilitators

The term organizational health literacy (OHL) is a new concept that emerged to address the challenge of predominantly in patients with limited health literacy (HL). There is no consensus on how OHL can improve HL activities and health outcomes in healthcare organizations. In this study, a systematic review of the literature was conducted to understand the evidence for the effectiveness of OHL and its health outcome, and the facilitators and barriers that influence the implementation of OHL. A literature search was done using six databases, the gray literature method and reference hand searches. Thirteen potentially articles with data on 1254 health organizations were included. Eight self-assessment tools and ten OHL attributes have been identified. Eleven quality-improvement characteristics and 15 key barriers were reviewed. Evidence on the effectiveness of HL tools provides best practices and recommendations to enhance OHL capacities. Results indicated that shifting to a comprehensive OHL would likely be a complex process because HL is not usually integrated into the healthcare organization&rsquo;s vision and strategic planning. Further development of OHL requires radical, simultaneous, and multiple changes. Thus, there is a need for the healthcare system to consider HL as an organizational priority, that is, be responsive

Food Security among Pregnant Women and Its Relationship with Body Mass Index in Eastern Iran

Background: Food insecurity is recognized as a serious public health problem worldwide. Since pregnant women are among the most vulnerable groups and their food insecurity may cause complications during pregnancy and on their newborns, the aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between food security and body mass index (BMI) of pregnant women in eastern Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 335 pregnant women in 10 health centers in the east of Iran. Participants were selected by random cluster sampling. Data were collected using standard questionnaires including 18-item household food security survey module (HFSSM) designed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and nutritional evaluation forms. Results: The mean scores of the HFSSM of all pregnant women were 7.2±4.3. The household food security of pregnant women was significantly related to the occupation of spouses, mother's education, monthly salary, private home, and mother's age (P<0.05). There was no significant relationship between food security and BMI (P=0.98). Conclusions: Based on the results, few people have food security. Pregnancy in older age, lower-income, and education affected the household food security. Appropriate strategies and policies are necessary to combat this problem

Application of the path analysis model to evaluate the role of distress, mental health literacy and burnout in predicting self-care behaviors among patients with type 2 diabetes

Abstract Introduction Mental complications of diabetes are one of the main obstacles to the implementation of self -care behaviors that have been less studied. Therefore, this study was conducted to survey the effective factors in predicting burnout and self-care behaviors among patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods In this Path analysis, 1280 patients with type 2 diabetes were selected from Mashhad (Iran) in 2023 to 2024. Four scales, the mental health literacy (MHL) scale, diabetes burnout scale, diabetes distress scale, and self-care behavior scale were used for data gathering. AMOS software checked the direct and indirect paths between the variables. Results In the path analysis, variables of MHL and diabetes distress predicted 25% variance of diabetes burnout (R2 = 0.25), and diabetes distress (total effect = 0.491) had the greatest impact on predicting diabetes burnout. Variables of MHL, diabetes distress, and diabetes burnout predicted 12% variance of Self-care behaviors (R2 = 0.12) and MHL (total effect = -0.256), age of onset of diabetes (total effect = 0.199), and diabetes burnout (total effect = − 0.167) had the greatest impact on prediction of self-care behaviors. Conclusion MHL could reduce diabetes distress and burnout and eventually promote self-care behaviors among patients with type 2 diabetes. Therefore, screening and identifying psychological problems (such as distress and burnout) and designing interventions to increase MHL can ultimately increase the health of patients with diabetes