Health literacy among parents of children and adolescents in Nanjing / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To understand health literacy among parents of children and adolescents in Nanjing and to provide support and suggestions for health literacy improvement.@*Methods@#A total of 3 412 elementary school students from 6 primary schools were selected to conduct a survey on health literacy during April to May 2017 through convenient sampling method.@*Results@#About 21.69% of parents in Nanjing had proficient health literacy, especially in the understanding of smoking cessation (98.24%). About 98.62% of parents gave correct answer on daily driving method, and 99.79% in skills needed for escaping in a fire, which was 99.79%. Parental health literacy significantly improved as educational attainment increases, from 11.80% to 35.69% for paternal and from 11.98% to 38.38% for maternal educational attainment (χ2=111.46, 114.58, P<0.01); Proportion of proficient health literacy was highest (95.43%) among fathers being professional technicians, and was highest (97.53%) among mothers being professional and technical personnel was 97.53%. Significant differences were found across different parental occupation (χ2=228.95, 218.79, P<0.01).@*Conclusion@#Health literacy should be strengthened among parents in Nanjing to support their children, especially among those with low educational attainment.