Health Literacy and Body Image Concern Among Healthcare Employees in Binaloud, Iran

Background and Objective: Health literacy has been implicated as one of the main factors in improving public health maintenance, the present study examined the relationship between health literacy toward body image concern and respondents’ demographic factors in healthcare employees in Binaloud, Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted on ۱۷۰ healthcare employees in Binaloud, Iran. The full version of the self-administered Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ) and Health Literacy for Iranian Adults (HELIA) questionnaires were used as validated self-report measures to examine body image concerns and health literacy of participants. We used SPSS Statistics ۱۶ (Chicago, Illinois) to conduct the descriptive statistics and preliminary analyses such as χ۲, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation. Results: Results showed that ۵۶.۶% of participants had adequate health literacy, ۲۴.۴% had marginal, and ۱۹% had inadequate health literacy. The mean score of the overall body image levels in the female and male participants were ۲۵۶.۴۵ ± ۲۵.۳ and ۲۵۶.۴ ± ۲۱.۶, respectively. There was a significant relationship (r=۰.۱۴۹; p <۰.۰۵) between health literacy and overall body image. Conclusion: This finding reflected a significant and positive relationship between overall body image score and the health literacy skills such as decision-making, understanding, and reading. We suggested a home/workplace intervention program to improve employees’ body image concerns.

کلیدواژه ها:

Body satisfactions ، healthcare employees ، Body Image Concern ، Health Literacy