assessment of health literacy and self-care behaviors among patients discharged from covid-19 wards

Introduction: the rapid outbreak of the new covid-19 virus has become an international health challenge. confronting the prevalence of this pathogenic virus requires, in the first step, health literacy and self-care on people’s part. materials and methods: this descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out over three months. a total of 67 patients discharged from a covid-19 ward were selected randomly. data were collected using a validated researcher-made questionnaire on health literacy and self-care. the data were then analyzed using spss software version 16. results: sixty-seven patients (mean age: 45.32 ± 9.39; age range: 29 - 87) were assessed. the majority were male (64.2%), married (79.1%), illiterate (44.8%), and homemaker or unemployed (37.3%). the overall mean score of health literacy and self-care was moderate. the results of the pearson correlation test showed a significantly positive association between overall health literacy and its components as well as the total self-care and its components among the patients studied (p <.001). conclusion: since self-care increases with health literacy among covid-19 patients, it demands educational interventions in this area to improve health literacy.