A Study On Status And Influencing Factors Of Health Literacy Among Residents In Wuxing District

BackgroundHealth literacy is defined as "an individual has the comprehensive abilities of accessing,understanding and dealing with the basic health information and service and making appropriate health care decisions to promote their own health" Many countries'researchers and governments take a degree of attention to the research of health literacy and the improvement of residents' health literacy.In August 2005,The Sixth Global Health Promotion Conference,sponsored by the WHO,was held in Bangkok.The conference raised "global health promotion Bangkok charter",which adopted health literacy as an important action and goal for health promotion.In January 2008,Chinese government announcement(2008 third)issued the?the basic knowledge and skills of Chinese citizens' health literacy(Trial)?,which defined the basic health knowledge and skills that our citizens should master at the present stage.In December 2009,the Chinese government published the "results of the health literacy survey of Chinese residents" for the first time.The overall level of health literacy of the residents was 6.48%,and the condition of health literacy of the residents in China was severe.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study is to know the health literacy level of residents in Wuxing District,to analysis the main factors that affect the health literacy,and to find the weaknesses.We want to provide scientific evidence for government to formulate the health education and health promotion strategies.MethodsWe sampled 800 individuals in 4 points from urban and rural areas respectively with a multi-stage stratified random sampling.The study used the?2015 Chinese citizens health literacy questionnaire?designed by the China Health Education Center.This survey was made by investigators face to face in home.We established a database with Epidata3.1 software and analyzed the data with SPSS software.We used descriptive statistics to analyze the level of health literacy and the main influencing factors.ResultsThe health literacy level of residents in Wuxing District was 10.7%,the basic knowledge and concept literacy,the health skill literacy,the health lifestyle and behavior were 20.7%,17.9%,15.0%,respectively.The level of the six types of health problems from the highest to the lowest were safety&first aid health literacy 50.2%,scientific views of health literacy 32.2%,health information literacy 17.5%,basic medical literacy 14.2%,infectious diseases prevention health literacy 13.7%,chronic diseases prevention health literacy 5.7%.The main factors affecting the health literacy level of the residents were the living area and the degree of education(pall<0.05)ConclusionsThe overall health literacy level of the residents in Wuxing District was low,which needs to be further improved.The lowest quality of chronic diseases prevention health literacy needs to be strengthened.Around the influencing factors,we should carry out targeted health education and health promotion work according to the residents' health literacy weakness and key groups in Wuxing District,so as to improve their health literacy level.