Determining health literacy and its relationship with health-related quality of life in the urban population aged 18-60 years in Zebarkhan City in 2024.

Introduction
Introduction Health literacy is related to an individual's capacity to acquire, interpret, and understand basic information from health services, which affects other aspects of an individual's life. The present study was conducted to determine health literacy and its relationship with quality of life.
Materials and Methods
This was a cross-sectional-analytical study conducted in the urban population of Zebarkhan County aged 18-60. The sample size was 250 people selected conveniently. The collection tool included a health literacy and health-related quality of life questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical tests using SPSS-26 software.
Results
The average reading literacy of individuals was 65%, access to information was 61%, comprehension was 69%, evaluation was 58%, decision-making and behavior was 47%, and overall health literacy was 60% with a standard deviation of 20. There was also a positive and significant relationship between the level of health literacy and health-related quality of life and its components (p<0.005).
Conclusion
The findings showed that the average score of individuals in health literacy, decision-making and behavior, is lower than other components and there is a direct and positive relationship between health literacy and quality of life. Therefore, it is necessary to pay special attention to the way people make decisions and transform health literacy into appropriate behavior in planning and designing educational programs.