Relationship between Health Literacy and Marital and Sexual Satisfaction and Some Demographic Factors in Women Referring to Health Centers in Ardabil in 2019

Background & objectives: The World Health Organization has introduced health literacy as one of the most important determinants of health which in turn can affect the quantity and quality of sexual relationship and sexual and marital satisfaction of individuals. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the relationship between health literacy and marital and sexual satisfaction in women referring to health centers in Ardabil.   Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive-correlational study. The statistical population was all women of reproductive age who referred to Ardabil health centers. Finally, 380 eligible women were selected using cluster sampling. To collect data, three questionnaires of the health literacy of the urban population of Iran (Helia), Enrich Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire and Hudson Sexual Satisfaction Questionnaire were used to collect the data. Data analysis was performed using SPSS-21 software and descriptive and analytical statistics were used to present the results. Results: The mean score of health literacy was 64.34 in the range of 33 to 165, the mean score of marital satisfaction was 142.84 in the range of 47 to 235, and the mean score of sexual satisfaction was 94.71 in the range of 25 to 175. There was a significant relationship between health literacy and age, marriage age, number of deliveries, type of delivery, education and occupation. There was a significant and direct relationship between health literacy and sexual satisfaction and there was a significant inverse relationship between marital satisfaction and sexual satisfaction. That is, it decreased with the increase of another. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that health literacy was low among women of reproductive age. This indicates the need to pay attention to the issue of health literacy in the women's community, especially in marital issues. Therefore, special attention and planning should be done in these subjects and the factors affecting them