Abstract:
This cross-sectional survey research aimed to determine the levels of health
literacy among eye-surgery patients and the practice of eye care based on health care
information acquired, as well as the association between health literacy and practice of eye
care. The sample of 200 respondents was selected from eye-surgery patients who made a
follow-up appointment at the outpatient department of ophthalmology at hospital. The data
were collected by questionnaire and were analyzed to examine associations by using crosstabulation
and the Chi-square test.
The findings showed that 69.5 % of patients have an adequate level of health
literacy and only 6 % of them have an inadequate level of health literacy. The eye- surgery
care information which most patients understood incorrectly was about unnecessary eye
cleansing (61%), practices before and during an eye operation (59.5%), and using eye
shields and protection to prevent eye injury (57%). For the practice of eye care, most
patients report they perform a good level of practice (83.5 %), and none were in need of
improvement. Incorrect practices mostly involved the application of eyedrops (58.5%).
Demographic characteristics such as age, education level, marital status, occupation and
income were significantly associated with levels of health literacy (p <0.05). Also, levels of
health literacy were significantly associated with the good practice of eye care (p<0.05), that
is, patients with adequate health literacy more often performed correct eye care than those
with inadequate or marginal health literacy. These findings show that patients health
literacy should be of concern to the patient care services of the hospital. Health care service
information conveyed via various media should be worded in simple language in order to
enable patients to understand and act on the information acquired.