Health Literacy Among University Students and Associated Factors: A Cross-Sectional Survey Among Pharmacy Students

Health literacy is an important topic for both healthcare service providers and recipients to ensure cost-efficient utilization of healthcare services and to improve health outputs. The study intended to identify health literacy of students at the faculty of pharmacy, who are future healthcare professionals. This cross-sectional study comprises 691 undergraduate students enrolled in the Faculty of Pharmacy at Ege University. "Health Literacy Scale of Turkey" was used to measure health literacy, which is the dependent variable of the study; and the questionnaire, which was used as the data collection tool, was implemented through face-to-face interviews. Correlation between categorical data was identified by chi-square test and logistic regression analysis. 548 students responded to the questionnaire (Response rate=79.3%). Students attending 1st year had 2.53 (95%CI=1.47-4.36) times higher odds of having inadequate health literacy; those who did not exercise ran 1.98 times (95%0=1.32-2.97) higher odds of having inadequate health literacy. The odds of having inadequate health literacy were 3.44 times (95% CI=1.02-12.35) higher among the students residing abroad as opposed to those living in a metropolitan city, and it was 1.70 times (95% CI=1.13-2.55) higher among those living in city centers. Identified health literacy rates were low when compared to the health literacy rates of pharmacy students in other countries. These results will contribute to incorporate the concept of health literacy into pharmacy education, particularly through adjustments to be made on the curriculum for new students.