Effectiveness of health literacy education for nursing students: A randomized controlled trial
Ayşegül Akca, Sultan Ayaz‐Alkaya
Abstract
AIM: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of health literacy education given to nursing students on health literacy level. BACKGROUND: Health literacy has become an important issue in the field of health. Health literacy is an issue of interest to health professionals as well as individuals. METHODS: The study was conducted as a randomized controlled trial. A total of 206 nursing students, 103 in the intervention and 103 in the control group, were included in the study. The intervention group received four weekly training sessions of health literacy education. The research was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov with the registration number NCT04868487. RESULTS: On the baseline assessment, there were no statistically significant differences between the intervention and control group in terms of health literacy level (p > 0.05). In the 1st- week and 12th-week measurements, the health literacy level of the intervention group was significantly higher than control group (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Health literacy education was effective in increasing the health literacy level of the students. Therefore, the concept of health literacy should be added to the nursing education curriculum.