Abstract:

Introduction:
Teachers' health literacy is defined as "the ability of teachers to obtain, interpret, and understand basic health information and services, with the competence to use this information and services in a way that enhances students' learning of health concepts and skills, It is the counterpart of students' literacy. The teacher is an important factor in any school health program, and their literacy level and health behaviors are essential elements to explore. Their adoption of appropriate health behaviors positively impacts both their own health status and that of their students.

Objectives:
To estimate the level of health literacy among teachers in public schools in Morocco and to identify the factors associated with the inadequate level.

Participants and methods:
A cross-sectional study was conducted among teachers in public schools in Morocco. A non-probability voluntary sampling was carried out. Data are collected via an online self-administered questionnaire containing:
1) socio-professional characteristics of participants,
2) overall perception of health status, and
2) health literacy level using the HLS-EU questionnaire in its validated French and Arabic versions. The questionnaire contains 16 items addressing self-reported difficulties in accessing, understanding, evaluating, and applying information to tasks related to decision-making in health care, disease prevention, and health promotion.
3) Perception of health education in schools with a Likert scale of four. Descriptive and bivariate analyses are performed. The ethical approval was obtained before the start of the study.

Results:
Among 108 participants, the sex ratio Male/Female was two, with an average age of 37.8 ± 7.7. Regarding health literacy, 25.9% have an inadequate level, 37% have a problematic level and 37% have a sufficient level. Regarding sources of health information, personal research comes first (75.9%), followed by health professionals (59.3%) and then the media (53.7%). The majority (87.1%) of participants do not have or are not aware of the existence of a health education program in their establishment. Only 14.8% have been exposed to a health awareness program in the last 6 months. Most participants (68.5%) of participants consider that their role is limited to information, and the majority of teachers believe their role is to foster a student’s health development. The obstacle of time was mentioned by 84.3%.

Conclusion:
More than two-thirds of our participants have inadequate or problematic levels of health literacy. This suggests the need to establish targeted health education programs for teachers to improve their health literacy levels and for the subsequent implementation of a successful and effective health promotion program in schools.

Keywords:

HLS-EU, Health literacy, health education, schoolteachers, Morocco.