Abstract:
Background: Lack of desired health literacy is one of the factors resulting in poor health
outcomes in adolescents due to their low health promotion and disease prevention practices.
However, there is a lack of information about adolescents’ health literacy levels in Ethiopia in
general and in Jimma town in particular.
Objectives: This study aimed to assess the level of health literacy and identify associated
factors among Jimma town public high school adolescents, Jimma, Oromia, Southwest
Ethiopia, 2023.
Methods: A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 634 Jimma Town High
School adolescents from June 05-20/2023. A multistage sampling technique was employed to
recruit study participants. A pretested self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data.
Data was entered into epidata 4.6 and exported to SPSS version 26.0 for analysis. Bivarible
and multivariable logistic regressions were performed to identify factors associated with the
level of adolescent health literacy. P-values less than 0.05 at 95% CI were used to declare
statistically significant associations. The result was presented by text, tables and charts as
necessary.
Results: From 634 total sample size only 604 (95.28%) participated. About 317 (52.5%) were
males. The age of participants ranged from 14 to 19 years, with a mean age of 16.95+1.52.
The finding revealed that only 36.26 % (95% CI; 32.40, 40.10) of participants had desired
health literacy, while 63.74% of high school adolescents had limited health literacy levels. Age
of 18-19 [AOR=3.65 CI:(2.13, 6.27):p<0.01], being in 11-12 grade level [AOR =2.66
CI:(1.54, 4.61);p<0.01], being from currently employed father [AOR=4.22 CI:(1.90,
9.38);p<0.01], being from currently employed mother [AOR=5.28 CI:(3.16, 8.83);p<0.01]
and having high social support by family [AOR=5.05 CI: (3.04, 8.40);p<0.01] were factors
positively associated with the level of desired health literacy.
Conclusion: Though more than one-third of the students had the desired level of health
literacy, a significant number had less than the desired level. Age, grade level, father’s job,
mother’s job, and perceived social support from family were associated with health literacy.
Therefore, efforts should be undertaken to raise adolescent health literacy through various
activities and programs.
