Comparison of reproductive health literacy and related factors in urban and rural women of reproductive age in Iran 2023

Background: Reproductive health is a key area of health and an important indicator of the health status of societies . Improving reproductive health literacy is one of the most important strategies to achieve the goals of reproductive health in various groups of women . Methods: This study is a cross-sectional descriptive analytical study in eligible married women aged 18-49. The reproductive health literacy questionnaire and demographic-social- reproductive characteristics questionnaire were completed by 593 people in person, online and by phone. Simple random sampling with allocation proportional to the size of reproductive age women was done in each center. After collecting the data, it was analyzed by spss 23 software. Results: The health literacy score for urban and rural women was 118.54 ± 21.38 and 111.40 ± 24.21, respectively, indicating a significant difference (P<0.00). Besides, the percentage of women with favorable literacy in rural are as was higher than in urban areas (70.4% vs. 51.4%). In logistics regression, there was a significant relationship with women's reproductive health literacy score in the city only between breast self-examination (p= 0.009 and OR = 0.4) and in the village between breast examination by physician or midwife (p= 0.003 and OR=0.38), employment of a family member in the health care system (p= 0.000 and OR=0.25) and the number of pregnancies (p= 0.04 and OR= 55). Conclusion: The results of this study can help health planners and policymakers design and implement more appropriate training and health services by considering the differences in urban and rural areas. In addition, given the importance of behaviors related to reproductive health, encouraging preventive examinations and raising public awareness in this area can help improve reproductive health literacy in women.