Association between health literacy and smoking status among residents in Wenzhou / 预防医学

ABSTRACT

Objective To assess the residents' health literacy levels and smoking status in national surveillance sites in Wenzhou and to provide scientific basis for tobacco control and thepublic health promotion. Methods Four hundred and eighty residents aged 15 to 69 years in Wenzhou Longwan District and Cangnan County were selected according to multi-stage stratified random sampling method and surveyed by the National Residents' Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire and the National Residents' Tobacco Survey Questionnaire from October 2015 to December 2015. The levels of health literacy were compared among respondents with different smoking behaviors. Results The smoking rate of these residents was 22.63, with the rate of ex-smoker 7.50％ and non-smoker 69.17％. The smoking rate of males (36.98％) was higher than that of females (6.95％) (P<0.05) .The overall health literacy level of residents in Longwan District and Cangnan County of Wenzhou was 5.01％. The average score of overall health literacy of smoker was 33.70 ±11.70, with ex-smoker of 28.06 ±11.60 and non-smoker of 33.59 ±11.83. The levels of health literacy of non-smokers and smokers were higher than that of ex-smokers (P<0.05) . Conclusion Residents in Wenzhou had a low level of health literacy. Improving the level of health literacy might positively affect the smoking behaviors.