The role of Health Literacy in Hypertension Control: a cross-sectional study in Iran.

Health literacy is peoples' capacity to receive, process, and utilize basic health information which is necessary for proper decisions. Assessing the Health Literacy level on controlling systolic and diastolic hypertension is the main goal of this study. A cross-sectional study. In this cross-sectional study, multistage cluster sampling was used to recruit 210 people affected by hypertension in Tabriz City, Iran. The data collection tool was a Health Literacy questionnaire. Among the Health Literacy dimension, such as the ability to access health information, reading health information, understanding health information, appraisal of health information, and decision making the SEM model has been utilized as a mediator variable in order to verify these variables on controlling the size of blood pressure to address the specific aims of study based on the Health Litercy. Significant correlations were found between all Health Literacy dimensions and systolic hypertension (p < 0.05). Also, the ability to access health information was the statistically significant predictor of decision making (R=0.335; p-value=0.012) and of systolic hypertension (R=-0.275; p-value=0.025). None of the Health Literacy dimensions revealed significant correlations with diastolic hypertension (p < 0.05). Adequate Health Literacy is a helpful factor to control hypertension in hypertensive patients. Therefore, improving Health Literacy, especially, facilitating the patients' access to health information, should be considered as an important factor of hypertension management.