Longitudinal Trajectories of Health Literacy Throughout Nursing Education: A 4-Year Prospective Study

To explore longitudinal trajectories of health literacy and identify the associated factors throughout nursing education.

A prospective longitudinal design with a four-year follow-up.

The present study was performed at a state university's nursing department in the capital city of Türkiye. The population consisted of 240 nursing students who studied in the selected faculty between 2015 and 2019. Overall, 191 nursing students were included in the final analysis (n = 191). The data were collected via a questionnaire and the Adult Health Literacy Scale. The first follow-up was performed between September and December 2015. The other three follow-ups were applied 12 months after each participant's enrollment date, every year from September to December. The data were analysed via the IBM SPSS 25.0 program. Descriptive statistics, Repeated Measures ANOVA, and Linear Mixed Model were used to present the data.

The mean age was 18.49 ± 0.99, and 86.4% were women. Of the students, 50.8% lived in an urban area, 97.9% were internet users, 38.7% had visual impairment, and 38.2% had glasses. A statistically significant difference existed between the health literacy mean scores over time. Nursing students' health literacy levels decreased among rural area residents and increased among students who had no vision problems and were internet users.

This study suggests that the health literacy levels of nursing students increased during the education period. Internet use, place of residence, and having a visual problem affected the alterations in health literacy levels over time.

Findings can be a valuable resource for nurse educators and faculty managers to produce effective strategies to increase the health literacy level of prospective nurses.

It was not appropriate or possible to involve patients or the public in the design, conduct, reporting, or dissemination plans of our research.