Health Literacy Level of Casting Factory Workers and Its Relationship With Occupational Health and Safety Training

Abstract

Health literacy (HL) is a stronger predictor of an individual’s health status than income, employment status, education level, and race or ethnicity. Lower levels of HL may contribute to low uptake or less adherence to occupational health and safety (OHS) training. This study was conducted among casting factory workers who received OHS training routinely. Data on sociodemographic characteristics, OHS training, and scores of the Health Literacy Survey–European Union (HLS-EU) were collected. Of the 282 of the 600 (47%) workers surveyed, 13.5% had inadequate, 47.5% problematic, 30.9% sufficient, and 8.2% excellent HL scores. There were no statistically significant differences between workers with limited and proficient HL with respect to age group or educational level. Workers with limited HL were less satisfied with OHS training content and were less likely to identify one-on-one health and safety training sessions as training. Limited HL is a universal problem both in the general and working populations, and it may be restricting the workers understanding of OHS training. Occupational health nurses should be aware of the detrimental effects of limited HL and modify their OHS training where needed for purposes of increasing the successful adoption of safe work practices.