The realtionship between health litercy and Covid 19 fear during Pandemia: a cross sectional study from Turkey

Bacground and Objectives: Health literacy is an important concept in the Covid-19 pandemic and has positive effects on fear. This purpose has been realized to determine the impact of concept of health literacy, which improves awareness in relation to health services on the Covid fear. Materials and Methods: This study is a cross-sectional study that was conducted on 1060 people in Turkey who filled out the study instruments in January 2021. Online tools were used to collect data due to social distance restrictions. The research data were collected using “Personal information form” created as based on literature and observations, “Turkish Health Literacy Scale -32 (HLSTR), and COVID-19 Fear Scale (FCV-19S). To analyzes of data, average, t test, ANOVA, regression test were used. Results: Average total score of Turkish Health literacy was 30.36±8.88. According to regression analysis, health literacy has significantly affect Covid fear and higher health literacy was associated with lower FCoV-19S scores (r=-0.760, p 0.001). Conclusion: Adequate level of health literacy can reduce the negative effects of fear of COVID-19 during the pandemic in Turkey.