Objective  To explore the correlation between self-reported chronic disease and health literacy among residents and to provide evidences for chronic disease control and health promotion in the population.

  Methods  Using multistage probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling, we recruited 18 000 permanent residents aged 15 – 69 years in Liaoning province and conducted a household survey during May – December 2015 with a uniformed questionnaire for national health literacy surveillance. Multivariate logistic regression was adopted to analyze the correlation between self-reported chronic diseases and health literacy.

  Results  The self-reported prevalence rate of chronic diseases were 22.08% among 16 966 residents with valid responses, with a significantly higher prevalence rate among the urban residents than among the rural residents (22.72% vs. 21.37%, P < 0.05). The results of logistic regression analysis demonstrated that for the urban residents, those at elder age (odds ration OR = 2.002) were more likely to have self-reported chronic diseases, but those with higher education (OR = 0.881), being students compared to being civil servants (OR = 0.123), and with adequate health literacy of infectious diseases prevention (OR = 0.751) were less likely to have self-reported chronic diseases; while for the rural residents, those being female (OR = 1.380) and at elder age(OR = 1.950) were more likely to have self-reported chronic diseases, but those being teachers (OR = 0.491)/doctors (OR = 0.489)/students (OR = 0.402) and workers (OR = 0.446) compared to civil servants, and with adequate literacy of health information (OR = 0.776) were less likely to have self-reported chronic diseases.

  Conclusion  Targeted health education should be promoted among adult residents in Liaoning province, especially among rural males, the elderly and those with lower education, to improve health literacy for the prevention and control of chronic diseases.