Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
BMC Medical Education, cilt.25, sa.1, 2025 (SCI-Expanded, SSCI, Scopus)
Aim: The research was conducted to measure the impact of health literacy courses on health literacy. Background: Studies to improve the health literacy level of students in health schools, especially dentistry students, are important in terms of strengthening patient-health care professional communication in their professional lives, as well as integrating the health literacy course into the curriculum of other schools. Methods: This study is a quasi-experimental study that was conducted among first-year students at the Faculty of Dentistry using the health literacy scale and pre-test and post-test applications. The Turkish Health Literacy Scale-32 (THLS-32) was administered as a pre-test during the first week of the health literacy course and as a post-test in the 17th week. Data from 133 students who completed both the pre-test and post-test were evaluated. The data were evaluated using IBM SPSS Statistics 21, and percentage and frequency distributions and standard deviations, were calculated during the statistical analysis. Mean and standard deviation were used for continuous data. Besides, the McNemar-Bowker test and the Paired Samples t Test were used to compare the groups in categorical data. The value of p < 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant. Results: Of the research group, 59.4% are female, 98.5% are single, and the average age is 18.6 ± 1.1. According to the pre-test general health literacy results of the research group, 16.6% had adequate (adequate/excellent) health literacy levels. In the post-test, 42.9% had adequate (adequate/excellent) health literacy levels. The average pre-test general health literacy index score for the research group was 28.65 ± 6.07, while the post-test average was 32.18 ± 7.21. The average pre-test general health literacy index score for the female was 28.77 ± 6.24, while the post-test average was 32.13 ± 7.35. The average pre-test general health literacy index score for the males was 28.48 ± 5.86, while the post-test average was 32.27 ± 7.08. There is no statistical difference between the general health literacy averages in terms of gender (p > 0.05). After the post-test, statistically significant results were found in all main and sub-dimension health literacy index scores (p = 0.000). After the post-test, the highest increase occurred in the health literacy category of using health-related information, while the lowest increase occurred in the health literacy category of evaluating health-related information (p = 0.000). The most significant difference between the pre-test and post-test occurred with the question, “Have your health monitored and checked at regular intervals as recommended by your doctor?“, which showed a change of 25.7%. Conclusion: The Health Literacy course was associated with improvements in health literacy. Adding health literacy courses to the university curriculum may be beneficial. When developing the curriculum, the needs and infrastructure of each school should be taken into account. The Health Literacy course can help students make the right health decisions. Trial registration: Clinical trial number: not applicable.