The Relationship Between Health Literacy and Satisfaction of Patients in Psychiatric Wards of Service Providers in Hospitals of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran

Introduction: Health literacy is defined as the capacity of individuals to obtain, process, and understand health information and services as the basis for appropriate health decisions, and low-health literacy has a variety of adverse outcomes. On the other hand, the importance of measuring the satisfaction of patients' companions is considered as one of the important and basic criteria determining the quality of care services. In view of this, the study was conducted to determine the relationship between health literacy of patients in psychiatric wards and their satisfaction with service providers in the hospitals affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran. Methods: To conduct this descriptive-applied study, 330 patients from psychiatric wards of hospitals affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in the second semester of academic year of 2019 were selected using available sampling method. To collect the data, two standard questionnaires, Health Literacy for Iranian Adults (HELIA) and a researcher-made satisfaction questionnaire (95% Cronbach's alpha), were used. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Pearson correlation test, and Shapiro Wilk test were used to analyze the data. Results: 33.95% of the participants were at level of not-enough health literacy, 22.72% had inadequate health literacy, 18.28% sufficient health literacy, and 15.15% had excellent health literacy. The highest score of satisfaction with hospital services was 3.89 for the guard unit and the lowest score was 3.55 for the writing unit. There was a direct and significant relationship between health literacy of peers and their satisfaction. Conclusion: The results revealed that the patients with higher health literacy were more satisfied with the services provided by the hospitals. Accordingly, planning to increase the level of health literacy of companions to increase their satisfaction seems necessary. Taking measures such as providing brochures and information pamphlets (during admission and discharge) can help to increase their level of health literacy of patients.