| Health literacy means the individual has obtained the ability to explain andunderstand basic health information and services well. Meanwhile the people withhealth literacy could use the information and services correctly which couldmaintain and promote the individual health. Health literacy as one of the importantpart of the health quality has become a major public health problem. It is important toimprove the health quality of the whole people. The main facts to build a moderatelyprosperous society struggle contained scientific and cultural qualities, the ideologicaland moral qualities. A high degree of attention of governments and researchers hadbeen taken of something about the health literacy. Most of the health literacy researchwork started late. A survey of health literacy research work was officially launched in2007. And the Ministry of Health health literacy of Chinese citizens-basicknowledge and skills (Trial)"was released in January of2008. The book named"healthy66-Chinese citizens health literacy Reader Ministry of Health" was writtenby the experts soon. In the same year, the Ministry of Health carried out a nationalsurvey about the health literacy status of ordinary residents for the first time. Theresult showed that the rate of Chinese residents health literacy was low (6.48%). Thethree aspects of health literacy were different as is shown by the basic knowledge andconcepts of literacy(14.97%), the healthy lifestyle and behavior of literacy(6.93%),basic skills of literacy(20.39%). It’s showed that the low level of health literacy of ourresidents was an obvious problem and the correlative steps should be recommendedurgently to improve the quality of our people’s health.ObjectiveTo bing out the health literacy level of residents in Shenyang city and explore therelative factors of the public health was important to the improvement of the healthpolicy and scientific, efficient, feasible intervention strategies. And to construct amore perfect health literacy monitoring system in Shenyang was the final, concreteobjective of this survey. MethodsThe method of multi-steps cluster sampling was adopted,4002residents werechosen from Liaoning Province in2010. The health literacy questionnaire wasformulated in accordance with the Chinese citizens health literacy questionnaire in2008, which consisted health knowledge and health philosophy, healthy lifestyle andbehavior, health skills. The survey was conducted by highly trained investigators inthe manner of one-to-one investigation. Chi-Square Test was used to analyze the dataof health literacy by SPSS17.0software.ResultsThe health literacy ratio of Shenyang City residents was11.00%with thedifferences of the basic knowledge and ideas (27.20%), healthy lifestyles andbehavior (9.90%), basic skills (28.40%). The rates of the five categories ofhealth-related problems were33.00%(scientific concept of health),26.00%(infectious disease prevention knowledge),7.6%(chronic disease preventionknowledge),25.8%(safety and first aid knowledge),13.20%(basic medical knowledge)respectively. The level of the health literacy was higher than that of the Chineseresidents’ health literacy survey for the first time.The awareness of health literacy content about71questions in the survey ofhealth literacy were different:correctly understanding and awareness of the fourfacets(diseases, obesity, sedation and pain-drugs), the the conception of the drug, theamount of drinking with the ratio of12.3%,18.2%,21.4%,23.3%,29.6%. The otherhealth literacy awareness concluded emergency medical assistance(98.4%),"the rightapproach when fire occurred "(98.1%),“awareness of smoking cessation”(96.5%),the correct practice rescue electric shock "(95.6%),“a motorcycle must wear ahelmet”(93.5%).There were94.5%of residents know the gram of salt each day. The rate of urbanand rural residents’ health literacy have significant differences: the ratio of the healthliteracy of urban residents (14.80%) was higher than the rural residents’(7.20%).Theratios of the basic knowledge and concepts of literacy of urban and rural residentswere34.00%and20.40%; the ratios of the good healthy lifestyle and behaviorliteracy were10.80%and9.00%, respectively,and the health skills of literacy rateswere32.80%and24.00%. In addition, five categories of health-related issues,scientific view of health literacy in urban and rural dwellers were36.00%and30.00%, respectively; the ratios of the prevention of infectious diseases of literacy were33.40%and18.60%, respectively; the rates of chronic disease prevention literacywere8.20%and7.00%, respectively; the ratios of safety and first aid of literacy were33.60%and18.00%, respectively; the ratios of basic health literacy were14.60%and11.80%, respectively. Apparently, the level of Shenyang City residents with healthliteracy and class literacy was higher than rural residents.As can be seen from the results of this study, different region, gender, age,education level would affect residents’ health literacy. There were a higher healthliteracy rate in the urban, the lowest of the50and over age group and more educatedresidents.Conclusion1. The ratio(11.00%) of health literacy of residents in Shenyang City in2010washigher than the2008(6.48%).2. The literacy rate of urban and rural residents with good healthy lifestyles andbehaviors was lower than the basic knowledge of concepts and basic skills, whichremind us should pay more attention to the lifestyle abort the health literacyinterventions.3. From top to bottom, the rates of all five categories of urban and rural residentswith health-related issues of literacy were the scientific view of health literacy,prevention of infectious diseases literacy, safety and first aid literacy, basic medicalliteracy and chronic disease prevention literacy.4. The level of the health literacy and category literacy in Shenyang was higherin city than that of rural.5. The main factors related to the residents’ health literacy were the region,educational level and age. So the preventive measures should be targeted for the theelderly, low cultural level of the residents. |
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