Authors: Alaa Elhadi , Omar Alasiri , Abdullah Abdulaziz Mohammad Alfaisal

Abstract

Background: Health literacy (HL) is one of the important indicators of individual health and healthcare services. Poor HL leads to poor health outcomes and underuse of preventive healthcare. Preventive health services can improve health outcomes of individuals, as such services help in the early identification and management of diseases. Nonetheless, utilization of such health services remains suboptimal in several regions, and the role of HL in the utilization of preventive health services has not been investigated before.

Aim: To assess the correlation between health literacy and the use of preventive health services in Saudi Arabia.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study that was conducted on adults in the National Medical Care in Saudi Arabia via questionnaire between the period from-------to-----. The questionnaire investigated the demographics of the participants and their literacy regarding healthcare, disease prevention, health promotion, utilization of preventive health services, and health-related behaviors.

Results: A total of 210 individuals were recruited; sufficient health literacy was reported among 87.6%. Health literacy levels were influenced by gender, marital status, education, employment, and monthly income (P˂0.001). The most utilized preventive service was blood glucose screening (75.2%). Health literacy was linked with undergoing blood glucose screening (P˂0.01), seasonal influenza vaccine (P˂0.001), and participation in disease screening programs (P˂0.001).

Conclusion: The majority of Saudi adults have sufficient health literacy, which in turn was linked with utilization of preventive health services, where all or the large majority of subjects who used different preventive services reported sufficient health literacy.

Keywords: Health literacy, preventive health services, utilization, association.