Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to assess the health literacy (HL) levels of adolescents and their parents attending the pediatric outpatient clinic of a training and research hospital and to evaluate the hypothesis that HL correlates with serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 levels, serum vitamin B12 (cobalamin) levels and sociodemographic characteristics.

Material and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study included 302 adolescents aged 14 years and older, along with their parents, who attended the general pediatrics outpatient clinic of Haydarpaşa Numune Training and Research Hospital from November to December 2022. Data were collected using a sociodemographic information form, serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 levels, serum vitamin B12 levels of adolescents according to hospital records, the Hacettepe University Health Literacy Scale-Long Form (HU-HL) for parents, and the Adolescent e-Health Literacy Scale (eHEALS) for adolescents. Non-parametric statistical tests were used due to the non-normal distribution of the data.

Results: The mean age of adolescents was 15.47±1.09 years, with 56% identified as female. The mean age of the parents was 44.49±5.02 years, with 84.8% being mothers. Among parents, 21.2% exhibited low HL levels, 57.3% shown moderate levels, and 21.5% displayed high levels. The average total score of eHEALS was 27.78±5.40. Female parents exhibited markedly superior HL scores compared to male parents (p=0.003). Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25(OH)D3) levels, serum vitamin B12 (cobalamin) levels, as well as body mass index (BMI), exhibited no significant correlation with HL scores. Nonetheless, parents of female adolescents had markedly higher HL scores compared to those of male adolescents (p=0.013).

Conclusion: Parents of female adolescents demonstrated significantly higher HL levels than those of male adolescents. These findings underscore the need for targeted interventions to address HL disparities among caregivers and adolescents. Future research should explore longitudinal and causal relationships between HL and biological as well as sociodemographic determinants.

Keywords: Adolescent, health literacy, parents

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Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to cite

1.
Uçar MT, Ergül B, Çiçek E, Aktaş S, Nuhoğlu Ç. Health literacy levels of adolescents and their parents visiting a pediatric outpatient clinic. Turk J Pediatr Dis. 2025;Early View:1-7. https://doi.org/10.12956/TJPD.2025.1228