What Are the Effective Health Literacy Skills in Adopting Walking Behavior to Prevent Osteoporosis?

Abstract Background:Considering the effect of exercise and health literacy in preventing osteoporosis, the effect of health literacy in adopting preventive behaviors, and the role of health volunteers in transferring the health messages to the community, this study aimed to determine the relationship between health literacy skills and adopting walking behavior to prevent osteoporosis in health volunteers. Methods:In a descriptive cross-sectional study, 290 health volunteers referring to Qazvin health centers in 1399 were selected through Multi-stage random sampling. Data were collected using a health literacy questionnaire (HELIA) and a questionnaire for the adoption of walking behaviors for the prevention of osteoporosis, and they were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression in SPSS software version 23. Results: The mean and standard deviation of the adoption of walking behaviors were 10.57 ± 1.43which was moderate. Age (P = 0.025, 1/098), decision-making skills and application of health information (P <0.001), perception (P = 0.037, 054/1 = OR) and evaluation (P = 0.029, 049 = OR) were factors affecting the adoption of this behavior, so that by increasing one score to these variables, the chance of adopting the behavior increased 135/1, 1.054 and 049/1 respectively. Also, the level of education was another effective factor in adopting this behavior, so that having a favorable level of adoption of this behavior in health volunteers with diploma degree (P = 0.017, OR = 0.736) and below diploma (011/0 = P, 960 = OR), were 0.736 and 0.960 times of those with university degrees respectively.Conclusion:To improve the adoption of walking behaviors to prevent osteoporosis, we should pay special attention to effective health literacy skills in the health volunteers.