assessing health literacy levels and information-seeking anxiety in postgraduate students

Introduction: health literacy encompasses the capacity of individuals to obtain, comprehend, assess, and apply health-related information, which is crucial for making informed health choices. accordingly, the phenomenon of information-seeking anxiety among graduate students, along with the potential influence of health literacy in alleviating this anxiety, underscores the importance of exploring these two areas and their interconnection. this study aims to evaluate the health literacy levels of graduate students at tehran university of medical sciences and to investigate the correlation between health literacy and health information-seeking anxiety.methods: this study follows a descriptive survey approach. the research focuses on all postgraduate students from the medical and allied medical schools at tehran university of medical sciences, tehran, iran, for the academic year 2023-22024. a sample of 220 students was chosen from this group through a combination of stratified and convenience sampling methods. this study utilized questionnaires assessing health literacy and information-seeking anxiety to gather data. descriptive statistics (such as mean, standard deviation, minimum, maximum, skewness, and kurtosis) and inferential statistics (including the one-sample t-test and pearson correlation coefficient) were employed for data analysis. the analysis was conducted using spss software, version 26.results: the average health literacy score was 68.43, while the overall information-seeking anxiety score was 89.90. participants demonstrated the highest level of health literacy in decision-making skills in behavior, with a mean of 60.16 and a standard deviation of 415.4. conversely, reading skills marked the lowest level of health literacy, with a mean of 76.5 and a standard deviation of 100.2. in terms of information-seeking anxiety, the highest levels were associated with barriers related to information sources, having a mean of 67.24 and a standard deviation of 262.7. the lowest anxiety levels were found in barriers related to information seeking, with a mean of 10.8 and a standard deviation of 131.3. furthermore, a significant negative relationship was found between health literacy levels and students' anxiety about seeking health information (p<0.05, r= -0.84). this indicates that as students' health literacy improves, their anxiety about seeking health information tends to decrease.conclusion: enhancing health literacy and refining information-seeking behaviors are crucial for alleviating health information-seeking anxiety among graduate students. libraries significantly mitigate health-related anxiety and foster self-care practices by offering educational workshops, creating trustworthy health resources, and delivering counseling services.