Relationship between health literacy and self-reported hypertension among urban and rural residents in Nanjing municipality, China

  Objective  To examine the relationship between self-reported hypertension and health literacy among residents in Nanjing municipality of Jiangsu province, and to provide evidences for developing tailored intervention strategies and approaches for hypertension prevention.

  Methods  Using stratified random sampling and probability proportionate to size sampling, we enrolled 6 962 permanent residents aged 35 – 69 years from all of 12 administration districts in Nanjing municipality and conducted a household questionnaire survey among the residents during October – December, 2016.

  Results  Of all the participants, 20.6% (n = 1 435) reported suffering from hypertension; 20.9%, 22.0%, and 24.1% were assessed with adequate literary for health knowledge, health lifestyle and behaviors, and health skill, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that the participants with adequate literacy for health knowledge were less likely to have self-reported hypertension (odds ratio = 0.82, 95% confidence interval: 0.68 – 0.97) compared to those with inadequate literacy for health knowledge after adjusting for gender, age, educational attainment, occupation, family average income per capita, and living region.

  Conclusion  The health knowledge literacy is significantly associated with self-reported hypertension prevalence among 35 – 69 years old urban and rural residents in Nanjing city, China.