The Role of Health Literacy in Adult Immunization

Objective: This study investigated how health literacy (HL) affects adult immunization (AI) knowledge and behavior in individuals aged 18 years.Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was conducted with adults who presented to an educational family health center.study data were collected using a 28-item questionnaire inquiring about the sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of AI and the 32-item Turkish Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-TR-Q32) administered face-to-face interviews. Results:The study included 312 participants.The mean age of the participants was 38.3±13.6 years (minimum-maximum: 18-83).Of participants, 73.1% (n=228) reported knowing about AI.Approximately 71.4% (n=223) of the respondents had received at least one adult vaccination, the most common being the tetanus vaccine (41.0%, n=128).The most common justification for not getting adult vaccination was "vaccination not being recommended by the doctor" (42.1%, n=37).Additionally, 47.4%, 16.1%, 25.8%, and 10.6% of the respondents had limited, inadequate, sufficient, and excellent HL, respectively.Knowledge of AI and receiving adult vaccination positively correlated with the HLS-TR-Q32 subdomain scores for "Treatment and Service-Appraising Health-Related Information" (p=0.014,p=0.037). Conclusion:The HL level was found to be mostly inadequate or limited among the participants, and this was found to influence knowledge and behaviors.AI rates can be significantly increased by improving HL as well as by physicians advising adults to get vaccinated.