Today is knowledge age and in this era, individuals are expected to interpret their disease, determine symptoms and make decisions on their health that is good for themselves. The efficiancy, effectiveness and quality of health care depends on health care services users decisions. These decisions are determined by health literacy level which is defined as the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand the basic health information to make appropriate health decisions. There are three types of health literacy: functional health literacy (reading and writing skills to understand and use health information), interactive health literacy (cognitive skills to interact with health-care providers) and critical health literacy (advanced cognitive, social skills and ability to critically thinking). If all of these skills are low, people are poorer overall health, they are use less preventive health care services and more medical services for their diseases, they have a poorer understand of treatment and a lower level of adherence to medical regimes. Limited health literacy is not only an individual problem, it is also important for health care manager and policy makers to organise and structure of health care services because of the increasing health services utilization and huge cost. Although the term ‘health literacy’ has discussed since 1970’s, and has grown tremendously in the past decade, there are not enough researchs on this subject in Türkiye. The aim of the study is to make an overall assessment about health literacy and is to contribute to the national literature on subject.
Key words: Key Words: Health Literacy, Dimensions of Health Literacy, Measurement Methods of Health Literacy, Health Literacy İmprovement Actions. Article Language: Turkish English
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