Functional Health Literacy Level among the Workers of the Faculty of Medicine at Zagazig University

Background: Health literacy has been identified as a key factor to improve health and well-being and decrease health inequities. Public Health England has described HL as the “bridge between people and health settings,” reflecting how patients can evaluate, use healthcare information system and navigate the services available to them. Study design: A cross sectional was carried out at the faculty of medicine, Zagazig University; Sharkia governorate; Egypt included a comprehensive sample of the workers of the faculty of medicine who were 59 individuals. Methods: Socio-demographic features were assessed by Fahmy (2015) questionnaire. The Swedish functional health literacy scale (S-FHL scale) Arabic version to assess Functional health literacy (FHL). Results: It was found that 62.7% of the workers were in the age group of ≥50 years, 78% of the studied participants were males, 89.8% were married, 86.4% were from rural areas and 74.6% were moderate social class. Regarding to the level of Functional health literacy, it was found that most of the workers (72.9%) had inadequate FHL, 23.7% had problematic FHL and only 3.4% had sufficient FHL. Regarding to social determinants of health, it was found that 83.8% of those above 50, 65.9% of the moderate social class and 91.3% of those above thirty years of experience had inadequate FHL, while 75% of secondary or diploma had problematic FHL. Conclusion: The workers staff of the faculty of medicine Zagazig University; Egypt had inadequate functional health literacy. Age, social class, educational level and years of experience statistical significant relationwith FHL level of the workers.