Health Literacy Level And Its Influencing Factors Among Staff Of Governmental Agencies And Institutions In Shanghai

ObjectiveTo understand the health literacy levels among staff of govenmental agencies and institutions in Shanghai, and explore influencing factors of the health literacy and the relationship between the health literacy and behavior as well as diseases, in order to provide the evidence to develop effective interventive approach to health management for the targeted population.MethodsAn epidemiological cross-sectional survey among part of the staff of the governmental agencies in Shanghai was employed for the study. The health literacy questionnaire including health related behavior habit and disease status was used in the study. The health literacy levels was assessed by percentage and the comprehensive score. Different demographic characteristics of the health literacy was described by chi-square statistics; main factors influencing the health literacy were analysed by non conditional logistic.Results1. A total of 2000 subjects were encroded, and 1952 valid questionnaires (with 97.7% efficiency) were collected,. Among them, there were 1204 men (61.7%), and 748 women (38.3%); the average age was 45.77 (± 10.15) years old, the minimum age of 21 years, the maximum age of 60 years; the most part of the subjects were married (87.4%) and had educational degree in college / undergraduate (87.7%).45.3% of the subjects had 2000-5000 Yuan in the average family income per month, and 49.1% had more than 5000 Yuan per month.2. The rate of the general health literacy among the staff of Shanghai government agencies and institutions was 25.51%. The rates of the sub-parts of the health literacy were 41.22% for health knowledge and attutite literacy (),15.22% for literacy of healthy lifestyle and behavior, and 36.91% for literacy of health relatedskills). The rates of the health literacy for 5 health related topics were 44.42% for the scientific view of health literacy, 39.99% for infectious disease prevention literacy, 21.69% for literacy against chronic disease, 66.17% for the safety and emergency literacy), and 11.52% for basic health literacy.3. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that:educational levels were the more important factors influencing health literacy, which affected the general health literacy, health literacy in the three aspects and in the five topics related to health. Age and gender also affected the health literacy in different ways too. The different age groups had different rates of the general health literacy, the literacy of health relatedknowledge and skills, the literacy of the attitude, and the literacy against chronic disease. Among the different gender groups, there were different rates of the health literacy in safety and first-aid knowledge. Family average income also effected the scientific view of the health literacy.4. Health skills played a mediating effect between health knowledge and attitute, lifestyle and behavior.5. Different health literacy levels had influences on smoking and salted food intake, the prevalence of hypertension and obesity, showing that high health literacy levels were related to low smoking index, hypertension, and low obesity prevalence. Conclusion1. The health literacy levels in the governmental agencies and the institutions in Shanghai is higher compared to general population, but the health literacy and health literacy level of the five health related to topics is not well distributed. It implicates that attention should be paid to strengthen the weak points such as the health campaign and health education of chronic disease prevention, basic medical care, life style and behavior in the future.2. Health literacy includes three aspects, knowledge, behavior and skills. From the investigation we can clearly find that there is a gap between knowledge and behaviors due to incomplete understanding of concepts. It is necessary to build a bridge among knowledge, behaviors and skills.3. Factors such as educational level, age, gender and income affect health literacy, especially educational degree. Compared with the general population, the educational levels is higer in the staff of Shanghai governmental agencies and institutions. There is, however, special health problems in mamy aspects such as psychological stress and physical activity. It is necessary to explore the effective approaches to strengthening their health literacy.4. The level of the health literacy affects health behavior and the health outcomes. Much egency should be paid to improve the health literacy.