Percieved health knowledge among Iranians: a nationwide study

ABSTRACT

People's knowledge about health is one of the essential requirements for improving health. This study aimed to investigate how people rate their own knowledge about health at population level. This was a nationwide cross sectional study. A random sample of individuals aged between 18 and 65 years were entered into the study. Respondents were asked to rate their knowledge about health on a 5 point scale. Demografic and socioeconomic data including age, gender, education, marital status, employment, income, chronic diseases and self-reported health were recorded. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate odds ratios for contributing factors to self-reported knowledge on health. In all 27,883 individuals looks part in the study. The mean age of the respondents was 32.7 years. Most people [48.3%] reported that their knowledge about health was at intermediate level. The result obtained from logistic regression analysis showed that all demographic variables [age, gender, education, marital status, employment and income] and people's health status [having chronic disease and self-reported health] were significant predicting factors of people's perceived knowledge about health. Radio and television were identified as the main information sources. The findings indicated that the perceived health knowledge among Iranians was fair. However it seems that mass media should take more responsibility to improve health knowledge of the general population