Health literacy level and its influencing factors among medical staff / 中华健康管理学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To analyze the health literacy level among medical staff and its influencing factors.Methods:Using the convenient sampling method, the in-service medical staff from four medical institutions (Shanghai Pudong New Area People′s Hospital, Shanghai Pudong New Area Zhoupu Hospital, Shanghai Tenth People′s Hospital Chongming Branch, and Shanghai Jing′an District Zhabei Central Hospital) were administered with a national residents′ health literacy questionnaire uniformly compiled by the China Health Education Center, and an electronic questionnaire independently compiled in combination with professional characteristics of the medical staff. The survey period was January 5-17, 2021. The contents of the questionnaire included basic information regarding gender, age, education, and professional title. Respondents were also asked whether they had chronic diseases, and three aspects of health literacy for basic knowledge and concepts, healthy lifestyle and behavior and health skills covering six other types of health problems including scientific outlook on health, infectious disease prevention and control literacy, chronic disease prevention and control. Safety and first aid literacy, basic medical literacy, health information literacy were also assessed. The total score for the questionnaire was 100 points. Respondents with a score of 80 or more were considered to have a competent health literacy. A total of 870 questionnaires were distributed, excluding incomplete ones, 826 valid questionnaires were used for analysis. Logistic regression was used to analyze factors influencing the health literacy among medical staff.Results:The overall health literacy level of medical staff was 64.0%, with 79.7% of respondents indicating that they had basic knowledge and concepts, 70.8% indicating that they practiced healthy lifestyles and behaviors, and 33.5% showed proficiencies in terms of health skills. From high to low, the health literacy levels for the six types of health problems were safety and first aid literacy (80.5%), scientific outlook on health (76.4%), infectious disease prevention and control literacy (60.2%), chronic disease prevention and control literacy (70.9%), basic medical literacy (52.7%), and health information literacy (50.2%). The results of a multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that physical condition, a lifestyle harmful to one′s health, highest educational background, and a professional title in the previous year were the independent influencing factors related to health literacy ( P<0.05). Conclusion:Levels of health skills, basic medical literacy, and health information literacy among medical staff are low, and physical condition in the previous year, lifestyle, professional title, and education are important factors influencing the level of health literacy among medical staff.