407 DOES WATCHING HEALTH PROGRAMS ON TELEVISION IMPROVE THE LEVEL OF HEALTH LITERACY? Ferihan Özmen Anadolu University, Turkey ferihanozmen@anadolu.edu.tr Birgül Taşdelen Anadolu University, Turkey birgultasdelen@anadolu.edu.tr Erkan Yüksel, Ph.D. Anadolu University, Turkey eyuksel@anadolu.edu.tr Ferihan ÖZMEN is a research assistant in the department of press and publication at Anadolu University Social Sciences Institute, Turkey. She is also preparing a Ph.D. thesis name “The Commercial Factors That Effects the Health Media Contents.” Birgül TAŞDELEN is a research assistant in the department of Cinema and Television at Anadolu University Social Sciences Institude, Turkey. She is also preparing a Ph.D. thesis name “Editing Content for Interactive Television” Erkan YÜKSEL is a professor and chairman of the department of press and publication at Anadolu University, Turkey. He teaches communication theories &research methods, content analysis, agenda- setting studies, and newsgathering &writing courses. Abstract The main purpose of this study is to compare the health literacy levels of those who follow the health programs on television with those of who don't. The study is important in terms of evaluating if health programs on television have any effects on health literacy or not. In this study 40 people who said that they watch health programs on television and 40 others who said they don't have been selected around Eskişehir with a limited sampling method. Age, sex, education and income levels of each person have been taken into consideration. The health literacy survey which was developed according to the literature review, was applied to those 80 people in total. According to results a meaningful conclusion has come out in terms of the relation between "health literacy and the level of watching health programs on television". According to the Independent Samples T test results, which was applied to detect whether there is a meaningful relationship between the watching frequencies of health programs or news on television and health literacy or not, there is a remarkable difference. (p=0.000 <0.05) So when the health literacy level of those 40 people, who don't watch these health programs, is compared to the other 40 who watch them, the level of the former group is seen to have a higher level than the latter one. Therefore, one can conclude that the sources which affect the health literacy of people are more likely to be doctors, internet or friends and relatives especially. Keywords: Health literacy, watching health programs on television, health literacy and television