Design and Validation of a Health Literacy Assessment Tool for COVID-19 Among Iranian Workers.

BACKGROUND: The workforce is an organization's most important asset, and ensuring their health and safety is crucial for achieving the organization's mission and goals. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to design and validate a health literacy tool for COVID-19 among Iranian workers. METHODS: This cross-sectional study involved a total of 201 participants. A personal information questionnaire was administered, and The Health Literacy Assessment (HLA) Tool was used to collect data specifically related to COVID-19. The HLA for COVID-19 was designed and developed, and the validity of the tool was evaluated through face, content, convergent, and construct validity analyses. To examine convergent validity, the Perceived Stress Scale was used. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed using internal consistency measures, such as Cronbach's alpha coefficient. KEY RESULTS: The mean content validity index was 0.93, indicating high content validity. Confirmatory factor analysis results supported the five-dimensional structure of the tool. Significant correlations were found between the HLA for COVID-19 and perceived stress levels. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for all items was 0.84, indicating high internal consistency. CONCLUSION: The HLA for COVID-19 is a concise, reliable tool for measuring health literacy related to COVID-19 among Iranian workers. Assessing COVID-19 health literacy in this population can be useful in evaluating the effectiveness of government officials, the media, and the medical and scientific community in providing necessary information. [HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice. 2024;8(2):e62-e68.].

PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY: The workforce is an organization's most important asset, and ensuring their health and safety is crucial for achieving the organization's mission and goals. The objective of this study was to design and validate a health literacy tool for COVID-19 among Iranian workers.The HLA for COVID-19 is a concise, reliable tool for measuring health literacy related to COVID-19 among Iranian workers. Assessing COVID-19 health literacy in this population can be useful in evaluating the effectiveness of government officials, the media, and the medical and scientific community in providing necessary information. Health literacy plays a crucial role in disease prevention, including the control of epidemics. It can be particularly valuable in empowering societies affected by crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had a profound impact on all aspects of human life. In international studies focused on assessing health literacy during the pandemic, researchers utilized public health literacy scales. However, only one study developed a specific scale to evaluate people's health literacy concerning COVID-19.

Lifestyle in Female Teachers: Educational Intervention Based on Self-Efficacy Theory in the South of Fars Province, Iran.

INTRODUCTION: Today, improving lifestyles and promoting health are basic needs for human society. The main goal in promoting health is to achieve healthy lifestyle behaviors, and self-efficacy is one of the factors influencing people's lifestyle. Therefore, the impact of educational intervention based on self-efficacy theory on improving lifestyles of the female teachers in Galledar was investigated. METHOD: This study was a semiexperimental study with educational intervention with a control group that was performed on 120 teachers in Galledar. Data collection tools included demographic information questionnaires, health-promoting lifestyle questionnaires, and Sherry's self-efficacy questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS 25 software. RESULT: The mean age and standard deviation of teachers in the control and intervention groups were 33.40 ± 5.68 and 32.83 ± 6.46 years, respectively. Health-promoting lifestyle variables are significant correlation with self-efficacy and overall lifestyle index. Six dimensions which consisted of spiritual growth and self-actualization, health responsibility, interpersonal relationships, stress management, exercise and physical activity, and nutrition showed significant statistical differences before and after educational intervention (P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Due to the sensitive role of teachers as an effective human force in the development and evolution of society and their students' role modeling, the authorities should formulate policies, regulate educational interventions, and design strategies for promoting self-efficacy beliefs and promoting a healthy lifestyle for all teachers. We suggest that other methods and theories of behavior change be used in future studies to promote a healthy lifestyle.

Malaria preventive behaviors among housewives in suburbs of Bandar-Abbas City, south of Iran: interventional design based on PRECEDE model.

Suburban areas suffer from unfavorable conditions as a result of poor health standards, low income, illness, and slight levels of education. One of the most important components in malaria elimination programs is health education. Bandar-Abbas is a malaria endemic city. Therefore, this study aimed to promote malaria preventive behaviors among housewives in suburbs of Bandar-Abbas City, Iran, through a PRECEDE model-based intervention program. This quasi-experimental study was carried out on 172 housewives under the coverage of four healthcare centers in Bandar-Abbas in 2016. The participants were randomly divided into two experimental and control groups, based on the inclusion criteria. The data collection tools included ademographic questionnaire, aresearcher-made questionnaire based on the educational phase of the PRECEDE model and achecklist for assessing malaria preventive behaviors. After the pre-test, the educational intervention was implemented on the intervention group at the first stage and the same questionnaire was administered as the post-test for both groups two months after the intervention. In this study, after implementing the intervention using the PRECEDE educational program, asignificant difference was found between the intervention and control groups in the mean scores for predisposing factors (knowledge and attitude) (P< 0.001), enabling factors (P< 0.001) and reinforcing factors (P< 0.001), which contributed to the improvement of preventive behaviors (P< 0.001). The PRECEDE model-based health education was effective in increasing knowledge and attitude, enabling and reinforcing factors, and promoting malaria preventive behaviors in the studied endemic areas.