Knowledge, attitude and barriers towards health literacy among health professionals working in hospital

Abstract

Objective

The study aimed to describe knowledge, attitude and perceived barriers towards HL among physicians, nurses, pharmacists and midwives working in one of the hospitals in Makassar City, Indonesia.

Method

This study was a descriptive study by surveying 77 health care professionals selected using stratified random sampling. The questionnaire used in this study was developed in the previous study in Malaysia.

Result

In general, the majority of health care professionals working in this hospital still have low knowledge, attitude, and did not have experiences related to health literacy. Perceived barriers related to health literacy were more to limited knowledge about health literacy and lack of support from the organisation to implement health education that can improve health literacy patients.

Conclusion

The role of health care professionals is important in assisting patients to achieve their health goals. Thus they must have a good understanding of health literacy to help patients gaining their health status.