Health literacy level and its influencing factors among residents in Ningbo City / 预防医学

ABSTRACT

Objective To analysis the health literacy status, trends and distribution characteristics of Ningbo residents during 2015-2016, and to provide basis for developing health policies and intervention strategies. Methods During 2015-2016, 9810 residents of 15-69 years old in Ningbo were investigated by face-to-face interviews using the unified national questionnaire and multistage PPS sampling method. Results Totally 9750 residents correctly filled out the questionnaire. The adjusted health literacy (AHL) of residents in 2016 was 21.73％, increased by 6.29 percentage points than 2015 (15.44％) .The monitoring results of two years both showed that there was no significant differences of AHL between men and women (P >0.05) . However, the AHL of residents with different age-groups, occupations and education levels all assumed significant differences (P<0.05) . The AHL was significantly higher in urban residents than rural residents (P<0.05) .Among the 6 health issues, the AHL of safety and first aid was the highest (2015 56.98％, 2016 61.32％), and the chronic disease prevention (201511.23％, 2016 12.10％) and basic medical care (2015 11.97％, 2016 13.81％) were the lowest, also who had the smallest lifting range. Logistic regression analysis displayed that residents with higher level of education had higher AHL (OR=1.72, 95％CI 1.61-1.83) . Comparison with civil servants, institutions, teachers and medical professionals, farmers (OR=0.74, 95％CI 0.58-0.94), workers (OR=0.70, 95％CI 0.57-0.86) and other occupational groups (OR=0.78, 95％CI 0.64-0.96) had lower AHL. Conclusion The health literacy of Ningbo residents is on the rise, Knowledge of chronic disease prevention and basic medical care will be the main contents of health literacy enhancement program in the future, especially for people with less education.