Health literacy among urban and rural permanent residents in Beijing, 2012

Objective To compare health literacy level and its influencing factors between urban and rural permanent residents in Beijing and to provide references for making intervention strategies.Methods With multi-stage stratified random sampling, a questionnaire survey on health literacy was conducted among 11374 permanent residents aged 15-69 years in Beijing.Chi-square test for univariate variables and logistic regression for multivariate variables were adopted in data analyses and the data were standardized according to the population statistics of the sixth census of Beijing.Results The health literacy rate of the urban and rural residents were 34.2%(3284/9592) and 14.2%(252/1770), and the standardized rates were 27.2% and 9.3%, respectively.Female(odds ratio OR=1.138), college or higher education(OR=2.735-3.243), aged 25 years and above(OR=1.398-1.824), family annual income of 50000 RMB yuan or more(OR=1.532-1.797), self awareness of general health(OR=1.415), and working as medical personnel(OR=4.424) were the protective factors of health literacy level in the urban residents.High school or secondary school or higher education(OR=3.025-6.123), family annual income of 50000 RMB yuan or more(OR=1.785-2.400), working as medical personnel(OR=8.571) were the protective factors of health literacy in the rural residents.Suffering from chronic disease(OR=0.866/0.697) was a risk factor of health literary in both urban and rural residents.Conclusion Various targeted health literacy promotion activities should be implemented, especially among rural residents and the residents with chronic diseases.