The School-Age Children With Cystic Fibrosis and Their Parents on Health Literacy

The study population will consist of school-age children aged 6-11 years who are diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and meet the inclusion criteria, along with their parents, followed at the Cystic Fibrosis Outpatient Clinic of Marmara University Pendik Training and Research Hospital.

This study is planned to be designed as a randomized controlled experimental study with a pretest-posttest design in order to determine the effect of an online education program that will be delivered to children with cystic fibrosis and their parents on health literacy levels. The study will aim to evaluate parents' ability to understand, evaluate, and use health information accurately, as well as children's understanding of their disease, their responsibility in managing their health, and the development of healthy lifestyle behaviors.

To ensure homogeneous distribution of the groups, randomization will be performed using a computer-based system (http://www.randomization.com, balanced permutation method). Children who meet the inclusion criteria and whose parents provide consent will be randomly assigned to either the intervention group or the control group according to the randomization list.

The online education program, developed by the researcher, will be administered to the intervention group following the pretest. The control group will not receive any additional intervention. Both groups will complete posttest assessments four weeks after the pretest.

Study Variables

• Independent Variable: The independent variable of the study will be the online education program that will be delivered to school-age children with cystic fibrosis and their parents.

• Dependent Variables: The dependent variables will be the health literacy levels of children diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and their parents.

• Control Variables: The control variables will include the descriptive characteristics of the children (age, gender).

Inclusion criteria

Children aged 6-11 years at the time of the study.

Children receiving treatment at the Cystic Fibrosis Diagnosis and Treatment Center during the study period.

Children able to understand and complete the Health Literacy Scales (no visual, auditory, or cognitive impairments that would prevent scale completion).

Children with sufficient proficiency in Turkish to answer the scales.

Children and parents who voluntarily agree to participate.

Children who have not previously received any health literacy education.

Exclusion criteria

Children with severe visual, auditory, or cognitive impairments that would prevent them from understanding or completing the scales.

Children who have already received health literacy education.

Children who are outside the age range of 6-11 years.

Children not receiving follow-up at the Cystic Fibrosis Diagnosis and Treatment Center during the study period.