Evaluation of Health Literacy in the Iranian Population

[Objective]This systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to assess the level of health literacy (HL) in the Iranian population.[Data Sources]Persian and English-language articles were identified through Embase, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, SID, Web of Science, and hand-searching (search dates for articles on health literacy, 1990 to February 2016).[Study Selection]Two reviewers independently selected studies that directly measured health literacy levels.[Data Extraction]Abstracted article information were categorized into evidence tables by one reviewer; information accuracy was checked by a second reviewer. Two reviewers independently evaluated the study quality by using predefined inclusion criteria, and jointly the overall strength of evidence evaluated by the research team.[Results]Twenty-eight relevant good- or fair-quality studies amongst 102 articles were identified, and 44 publications were assessed in full text. The researchers excluded 16 studies: Nine were reports with inadequate results and seven had low quality. Results of meta-analysis showed that better level of HL existed among 66 adults (62.47 to 69.53), 61.62 patients (53.40 to 69.84), 58.88 female (51.68 to 66.07), and 40.98 elderly (17.71 to 64.26).[Conclusions]Health Literacy of the Iranian population was inadequate and borderline. Therefore, the need to increase awareness and intervention to reduce poor HL in the Iranian population is crucial.