Women's Health Literacy Levels and Health Beliefs Concerning Cervical Cancer and Pap Smear Test in Türkiye

Objective: This study examined the relationship between women's health literacy levels, their health belief levels concerning cervical cancer, and the Pap smear test. Methods: This descriptive and relationship-seeking study was conducted with 519 women who were selected using the purposive sampling method and met the inclusion criteria. Data were collected using a questionnaire by the researchers, the Turkey Health Literacy Survey (THLS-32) and the Health Belief Model Scale for Cervical Cancer and the Pap Smear Test (HBM-SCCPST). Results: The mean THLS-32 score of the women was 32.08 +/- 11.85 and 30.2% had an insufficient level of health literacy. Women's education, occupation, economic status, knowledge of the Pap smear, and willingness to be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus were found to be factors affecting their health literacy (p<0.05). The mean subscale scores in the HBM-SCCPST were determined to be 30.83 +/- 8.46 for Pap smear benefits, 32.70 +/- 11.41 for barriers, 22.16 +/- 6.06 for cervical cancer-seriousness, 7.83 +/- 2.40 for cervical cancer-susceptibility, 9.15 +/- 2.86 for cervical cancer health motivation. The women's health literacy levels had a weak positive correlation with their mean Pap smear benefits subscale score (r=0.275), weak negative relationship with their mean barriers subscale score (r=-0.212) (p=0.000). Conclusion: In this study, it was observed that as the health literacy levels of the women increased, there was a decrease in their barrier perception and an increase in their benefit perception concerning the Pap smear test. The results suggest that women's health literacy levels are moderate, and there is a need for interventions to increase their health literacy.