Status and Determinants of Health Literacy among Adolescents in Guangdong, China

Abstract

Background: Previous studies for non-communicable disease cotrol, including cancer, have mostly relied on health literacy in adults. However, limited studies are available for adolescents. This study aimed to assess the status and determinants of health literacy in in-school adolescents in Guangdong, China. Materials and Methods: A total of 3,821 students aged 13-25 years were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling. After the questionnaire of health literacy was answered, the total scores for health knowledge (18 questions), skills (5 questions) and behaviors (14 questions) were determined. The total scores for health literacy and each subscale were recoded into adequate and inadequate subgroups, and logistic regression models were used to identify factors associated with each outcome variable. Results: The prevalence of adequate health literacy was 14.4%, and the prevalences for adequate knowledge, skills and behavior were 22.4%, 64.7% and 6.6%, respectively. Students coming from prestigious schools and having parents with higher education had higher odds of having adequate knowledge, skills and behaviors. Female students had higher odds of having adequate knowledge and behaviors. Students in grade 7-8 had higher odds of having adequate knowledge and skills. The health knowledge was positive associated with health skills (odds ratio [OR] =2.1, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.7-2.5) and behaviors (OR=3.0, 95%CI 2.3-4.0), and health skills were positive associated with health behaviors (OR=2.6, 95%CI 1.8-3.8). Conclusions: Further efforts should be made to increase adolescents' health knowledge and behaviors, especially for low grade and male students in non-prestigious schools.

The association between quality of life(QOL) and health literacy among junior middle school students: a cross-sectional study

“…Moreover, we found that students with low health literacy were more likely to get fewer scores of QOL comparing to their counterparts with high HL, even adjusting for covariates. This finding amongst junior middle school students is concordance with reported findings among adults and patients [ 35 , 45 , 46 ]. For instance; a study among patients with ischemic heart disease showed that increasing health literacy may improve health-related QOL and reduce the impact of ischemic heart disease [ 35 ].…”

“…Data analysis showed that, students living in urban areas were more likely to have higher health literacy than their urban counterparts, consistent with our expected and other studies in China [ 50 ], which may be related with the degree of economic development, the disequilibrium of health-related resources and the accessibility of health information [ 50 , 51 ]. Regarding to the discrepancy of sex, most of the studies [ 46 , 52 ] point to better health literacy for females, that corroborates our findings. There were several possible explanations for this divergence.…”

Does Better Health-Related Knowledge Predict Favorable Health Behavior in Adolescents?

“…The model specifications, including correlations and path justification of the dependent and independent variables, were based on preliminary hypotheses, namely, that during the investigation of the relationship between health behavior and health-related knowledge we cannot ignore the context in which the adolescents are living, which was the reason to involve demographic and socioeconomic variables into the analysis. The latter are widely known health determinants, which can influence health behavior and health-related knowledge, as shown in some previous studies [11][12][13].…”

Effect of health literacy among students on the adoption of osteoporosis-preventive behaviors in Iran

“…[ 12 ] In teenage years, many physical and psychosocial changes take place and in turn affect the quality of life in adulthood. [ 13 ] Thus, it is a very critical time for adults to improve their lifelong health-related behaviors by obtaining accurate and reliable health information and then reflect this on their behaviors. [ 14 ]…”