Health Literacy level and related factors of students in a health vocational high school

Background

Health literacy (HL) is defined as the capacity to acquire, interpret and understand basic health information and services in a way to improve person's health. Population health literacy level was found to be inadequate or limited with 64,4% Ä°n Turkey Health Literacy Research (2015). The aim of this study is to determine the HL levels of students attending health vocational high schools and the related factors.

Methods

The population of this cross-sectional study was students who attended to the vocational school in the center of Malatya. The sample size was determined as 337 by using the power analysis based on Turkish data. Official permission was obtained for the research. In May and June 2019, Turkish Health Literacy Questionnaire-32 (THLQ) developed by the Ministry of Health was applied to the accepting students in this study.The score obtained from the scale is considered to be insufficient of 25 and below, limited to > 25-33 points and a score of < 33 and above is sufficient or excellent. In the analysis of the data, Kolmogorov Smirnov, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests were used and p < 0.05 was chosen as the level of error.

Results

68% of the students is female and 32% is male. The average age of the research group is 16.6 ± 1.1 (min. 14, max. 20). 18.3% of male students stated that 6.6% of female students smoke. The THLQ score of the study group was found to be 33.7 ± 8.9. 53.7% of male students and 39.5% of female students had insufficient or limited HL different from each other significantly (p < 0,025). 56.4% of students in 9th and 10th grades and 37.4% of 11th and 12th grade students were found to have insufficient or limited HL significantly (p < 0,0001). There was no difference between HLL scores and other socio-demographic characteristics(p > 0,05).

Conclusions

The frequency of adequate or excellent HL in the study group is higher among females (60.5%) than males (46.3%). It can be said that female students value health more.

Key messages

The limited level of health literacy of health vocational high school students indicates the insufficiency of health education in schools. Health topic campaigns should be organized frequently for awareness on health education during school education.

The relationship between sleep quality and nutrition of medical school students in a city of Turkey

Background

Students need quality sleep and regular feeding during an intensive training proces. The aim of this study was to determine the sleep quality of Faculty of Medicine students and whether there is a relationship between sleep quality and eating attitudes and habits.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study; a face-to-face questionnaire was administered to 352 students who attending Inonu University Medical Faculty between January and March of 2019. The sample group is stratified according to class sizes (total 1665 students. The sleep quality and eating behaviors of students were questioned. For purpose, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PUKI, developed by Buysse et al,1989), and Eating Attitude Test (EAT,developed by Garner et al 1982) was used to assess quality and disorders. Kolmogorov Smirnov normal distribution test, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis test were used in analysis of the data.

Results

The mean age of the students was 21.5 ± 2.5 and 54.3% were female and 45.7% were male and 25.0% smoked cigarette. 64.4% of the study group had normal body mass index. The median value of the PUKI (cut of point is 5.0 and under 5 is good) score by gender is similar with 6.0 (1.0-15.0). The median value of the PUKI score was 6.0 (1.0-16.0) in social media / internet users and 5.0 (1.0-13.0) in non-users. According to Internet / social media users before going to sleep, the difference is significant (p: 0.016). The difference between cigarette smoking and median value of PUKI was significant (p: 0.029). there was a difference between classes in favor of upper classes in terms of EAT values (p = 0,046). 12.2% of the students are at risk of Blumia and 10.8% are at risk of Anorexia. There was no significant but positive correlation between the PUKI and EAT (p = 0.074, r = 0.096).

Conclusions

In general, the students’ sleep quality and eating attitudes and habits were found close to the cut-off points accepted by the tests. But blumia and anorexia is significant. This study was supported by the Research Fund of the Inonu University (No. 1792)

Key messages

Social media / internet usage of students before going to sleep affects sleep quality significantly. Although 64.4% of the students have normal body mass index, eating disorders (bulumia and anorexia) risk are noteable.