Association between health literacy and risk of depressive symptoms among Chinese college students

Abstract

Background The association between health literacy and depressive symptoms has been examined among Chinese middle school students, however there is no evidence are available from college students. Aims This study aimed to examined the association between health literacy and depressive symptoms among Chinese college students. Methods This cross-sectional study recruited 2771 college students in Southwest University. Depressive symptoms was assessed using Zung self-rating depression scale and a score of ≥ 50 represented having depressive symptoms. We used Chinese adolescent interactive health literacy questionnaire to assess health literacy. Multivariate logistic regressions analysis was applied to assess the association between health literacy and depressive symptoms. Results The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 34.9% (967/2771). Multivariate logistic regressions analysis showed an inverse association between health literacy and depressive symptoms after adjusting for potential confounders. The multivariate adjusted ORs (95%CIs) for depressive symptoms across quartiles of health literacy level were 1.000 (reference), 0.48 (0.39, 0.60), 0.25 (0.19, 0.32), and 0.16 (0.12, 0.21) (P for trend: <0.001). Similar associations were also found when all 6 health literacy dimensions were analyzed separately. Conclusion The results of this cross-sectional study indicated that higher health literacy level was associated with lower risks of depressive symptoms. Further prospective studies or randomized controlled trials should be conducted to prove the causal association between health literacy and risk of depressive symptoms.