Health literacy and its influencing factors among residents aged 15-69 years with different chronic disease in Zhejiang Province / 中华健康管理学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the level of health literacy and its influencing factors among residents aged 15-69 years with different chronic disease in Zhejiang Province.Methods:In this cross-sectional study, a stratified multistage whole cluster random sampling method was used to select 19 200 permanent residents aged 15-69 years from 30 monitoring sites in Zhejiang Province from June to November 2022, and a household questionnaire survey was carried out with the National Health Literacy Monitoring Questionnaire for the Population. The content of the survey included socio-demographic characteristics, health-related factors and health literacy level. A total of 19 200 questionnaires were distributed and 19 051 were collected, of which 18 857 (98.98%) were valid. The χ2 test was used to compare the health literacy levels of residents with different chronic diseases, and logistic regression was used to analyze the influencing factors of the health literacy levels. Results:The health literacy level of residents aged 15-69 in Zhejiang Province in 2022 was 38.36%. Among them, the health literacy level of patients with multiple chronic diseases was much lower than those with single chronic disease and those without chronic disease (14.70% vs 25.37%, 42.21%) ( χ2=483.05, P<0.001). It was positively associated between having multiple chronic diseases and insufficient health literacy ( OR=1.26, 95% CI: 1.01-1.58); compared with those without chronic disease ( OR=1.00), patients with multiple chronic diseases were significantly more likely to have inadequate health literacy in basic knowledge and concepts ( OR=1.29, 95% CI: 1.03-1.63), health behaviors ( OR=1.24, 95% CI: 1.01-1.53), basic skills ( OR=1.37, 95% CI: 1.11-1.69), and health information literacy ( OR=1.27, 95% CI: 1.08-1.50). Conclusions:The number of chronic diseases is a key factor that affects the residents′ health literacy level, and people with multiple chronic diseases are often associated with a higher risk of inadequate health literacy.