Tehran University of Medical Sciences Iranian Journal of Public Health 2251-6085 46 8 2017 07 17 1062 1070 Gaukhar KAYUPOVA Dept. of Healthcare Policy and Management, SD Asfendiyarov Kazakh National Medical University, Almaty, Kazakhstan Botagoz TURDALIYEVA Dept. of Healthcare Policy and Management, SD Asfendiyarov Kazakh National Medical University, Almaty, Kazakhstan Kazbek TULEBAYEV Dept. of Healthcare Policy and Management, SD Asfendiyarov Kazakh National Medical University, Almaty, Kazakhstan Tuyen Van DUONG School of Public Health, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan Peter Wushou CHANG School of Public Health, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan AND National Taipei Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taipei, Taiwan Diana ZAGULOVA Baltic International Academy, Riga, Latvia 2017 07 17 2017 07 17 Background: This study aimed to evaluate health literacy levels of patients in Almaty City, Kazakhstan and to identify socio-demographics and socio-economic factors related to their health literacy. Methods: An international survey instrument HLS-EU-Q developed by the European Health Literacy Consortium was used in a cross-sectional study with 1000 citizens in the Almaty City at the age of 18 and over who visited the outpatient departments in the polyclinics between Feb and Oct 2014. Results: There were 552 women and 446 men completed the survey, with mean ages as (41.8 ± 13.9) and (44.7 ± 15.2) yr old respectively, and women were significantly younger than men (P<0.001). Their general health literacy was (34.0 ± 8.6) for men and (33.49 ± 9.4) for women, without significant difference. In them, 15.5% or 30.0% were with inadequate or problematic health literacy. Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that higher general health literacy was positively and significantly associated with high self- assessed social status (B=3.86, P<0.001), ability to pay for medications (B=3.42, P<0.001), low frequency of watching health related TV programs (B=2.37, P<0.001), moderate community involvement (B=2.23, P=0.03). Conclusion: Specific demographic and socio-economic determinants related to health literacy were identified the first time in Kazakhstan. This would facilitate programs to improve health outcomes in Kazakhstan.   https://ijph.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijph/article/view/10605 https://ijph.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijph/article/download/10605/5252