The Effect of Health Literacy Level on Postpartum Maternal Adaptation

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the influence of health literacy level on postpartum maternal adaptation. Material and Method: A total of 314 postpartum mothers participated in this cross-sectional research. The data was collected using the Personal Information Form, the Health Literacy Scale (HLS), and the Postpartum Self-Evaluation Questionnaire (PSEQ). In the statistical evaluation, descriptive statistics (number, percentage, mean, standard deviation) and Pearson correlation analysis were employed. Results: The mean age of the women who participated in the study was 28.00±5.41 years. It was determined that 73.2% of the women had a nuclear family structure, 69.1% of the women's income was equal to their expenses, 72.3% had a planned and desired pregnancy, 81.5% went for prenatal care checks regularly, 85.7% did not attend childbirth-preparation class, and 90.1% of births of them attended by a midwife. The women's total scores of the HLS and PSEQ were 105.21±15.17 and 135.19±27.38, respectively. It was found that there was a weak significant correlation between the total scores of the HLS and PSEQ and all of their sub-dimensions, with the exception of the sub-dimensions of access to information in the HLS and satisfaction with the birth experience in the PSEQ, and that postpartum adaptation increased as the level of health literacy increased (p<0.001, p