Exploring health literacy in Wuhan, China: a cross-sectional analysis
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Exploring health literacy in Wuhan, China: a cross-sectional analysis Xin Mei1†, Qing Zhong1†, Gong Chen2†, Yuanxia Huang1 and Junlin Li1*
Abstract Background: In recent years, research on health literacy has become increasingly focused on the health care system and public health. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate health literacy and analyse the risk factors that affect health literacy in Wuhan, China. Methods: Multistage stratified random sampling was used to select 5304 urban and rural residents aged 15 to 69 years from 204 monitoring points in 15 districts of Wuhan. Using the Chinese Citizen Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) (2018 edition), a face-to-face survey was conducted from November to December 2018. Risk factors that may affect health literacy were assessed using the Chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression models. Results: The knowledge rate of health literacy was relatively low (19.3%). The knowledge rate of health-related behaviour and lifestyle (BAL, 17.3%) was the lowest of the three aspects of health literacy, and the knowledge rate of chronic diseases (CD, 19.0%) was the lowest of the six dimensions of health literacy. Respondents who lived in urban areas, had higher education levels, worked as medical staff, had a higher household income and did not suffer from chronic diseases were likely to have higher health literacy. Conclusions: The health literacy levels of citizens in Wuhan are insufficient and need to improve.
Background Health literacy [1–3] is often defined as the ability to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health decisions. As a variable associated with health outcomes, health literacy is an important component of people’s health behaviours, health quality, and access to health information and health care [4]. Lower health literacy leads to obstacles in communication between health-care professionals and patients, obstruction of citizens’ access to health information and inefficiency in self-health management [5–7]. Therefore, health literacy should be an important priority for the government and researchers [8]. Because of the critical * Correspondence: [email protected] † Xin Mei, Qing Zhong and Gong Chen are co-first authors. 1 Department of Health Education, Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, No. 288 Machang Road, Changqing Street, Jianghan District, Wuhan 430024, Hubei, China Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
role of health literacy in health quality, many countries, such as the United States, Canada and Australia, have treated it as a national health indicator [9–12]. In January 2008, the Chinese Ministry of Health finalized the bulletin “Chinese Resident Health Literacy— Basic Knowledge and Skills (Trial)” [13, 14], which was the first government document to define citizens’ health literacy and played a vital role in the development and promotion of health education in China [15]. According to the bulletin, a Delph
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