A healthy lifestyle education programme for health literacy and health-promoting behaviours: A pre-implementation and post-implementation study

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine whether implementation of a healthy lifestyle education programme resulted in improved health literacy levels and healthy life style behaviours. Methods: A one-group pretest-posttest study design was used. This study was carried out with 30 women who were enrolled in a family health centre. A questionnaire comprising the Adult Health Literacy Scale, Healthy Lifestyle Behaviour Scale-II, Perception of Health Scale, and Short Test of Functional Health Literacy was used for data collection. Eight home visits including training and follow-up followed the first interview at the family health centre. The healthy lifestyle training was applied once per week during home visits. After the training sessions were completed, women were followed-up through four home visits biweekly in the second and the third months. Results: The difference between the Adult Health Literacy Scale and Short Test of Functional Health Literacy pretest-posttest mean scores was statistically significant (P <.05). Although the Perception of Health Scale and the Healthy Lifestyle Behaviour Scale-II posttest scores were higher than the pretest scores, the difference between the groups was not statistically significant. Conclusion: The training and counselling intervention visits increased health literacy but did not significantly change the healthy life style behaviours and health perceptions of the women.