How to make more people adopt healthy behaviors? Assessing health literacy, health promoting lifestyle and their association of community residents in Shenzhen, China

Abstract

IntroductionHealth literacy (HL) has been concerned a key factor for determining the use of health information and promoting health. The study aimed to explore the relationship between different health literacy types and health promoting lifestyle (HPL) in different health literacy population.MethodsThe survey analyzed a sample of 16,921 community residents in Shenzhen. The Chinese Citizen Health Literacy Questionnaire and health-promoting lifestyle profile II (HPLP- II) were used to assess health literacy and health promoting lifestyle.ResultsParticipants were divided into different populations based on the correlation between HL and HPL. The low-HL and medium-HL populations were judged to lack health literacy, and demographic characteristics were significantly different between different HPL levels in low-HL and medium-HL populations. There were 6 types of HL, and health information literacy (β = 0.08, P < 0.001) and chronic disease literacy (β = 0.08, P < 0.001) positively predicted HPL in the low-HL population. In the medium-HL population, the results of reward and punishment analysis showed that health information was a basic factor, chronic disease was performance factor, medical care was a motivating factor for HPL; there were 6 dimensions of HPL, and health responsibility (HR), stress management (SM) and physical activity (PA) were not significantly different in medium-HL population. The results of regression analysis showed that HR and PA had a great impact on HPL (HR: β = 0.193, PA: β =0.179, β for other dimensions was 0.186, 0.176, 0.171, 0.164), but the HR and PA standardized scores were lowest in the HPL dimensions (HR: 69.42, PA: 68.5, lower than other dimensions), so it may be HR and PA that cause HPL unchanged between groups in the medium-HL population.ConclusionsDifferent HL levels have different relationships with HPL, and different HL types have different effects on HPL. Shenzhen community residents need to improve their HL, and they have great potentials for further progress to improve the population health. Public health policy makers need to consider formulating different policies for people with different HL levels.

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice towards Influenza Vaccination among Older Adults in Southern China during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…This difference might be attributed to the fact that people living in Shenzhen are provided with fruitful medical resources and health information offerings from the high-quality primary healthcare system supported by the municipal government [ 22 ]. Additionally, evidence showed that health literacy was apparently higher among people in Shenzhen compared with the Chinese average level, which referred to the ability and basic diathesis to acquire and use health information and make health-associated associations, for example, vaccination in the present study [ 23 , 24 ]. Statistically significant influenza-associated factors in knowledge and attitude survey items were identified, which showed that people having sufficient and correct knowledge as well as positive attitude towards influenza vaccination were associated with having vaccination.…”

Topics Included in Health Literacy Studies in Asia: A Systematic Review

“…In 89 relevant papers in HL, studies authored by Chinese scientists are the most prevalent, with 27 studies that surveyed HL levels in various groups of people. They were patients 22 -27 or general public, secondary, 28 -30 high school, 30,31 college students, 32,33 women, 34 12 years old and above, 16,15,35 -43 or older adults. 44 -47 Taiwan had the second-highest number of HL measurement articles, with 16 published papers.…”

Nutritional Status and Sarcopenia in Nursing Home Residents: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…No statistically significant association was observed between gender and nutritional risk in the results of the univariate analysis, although women showed a greater incidence of nutritional risk as in other studies. Highly educated older persons are more conscientious about health and are more capable of acquiring nutritional knowledge and taking an active role in developing healthy eating habits and nutritional behaviors [ 43 , 44 ]. Another study has shown that marital status is negatively associated with the nutritional status of older adults, in which those in the widowed or divorced group have lower nutritional status than those in the spoused group [ 45 ].…”