Level and associates of health literacy among residents of Urumqi municipality, 2018

  Objective  To examine the status quo and influencing factors of health literacy among residents in Urumqi municipality of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

  Methods  Using multistage random sampling, we conducted a survey among 4 000 permanent residents aged 15 – 69 years in Urumuqi municipality with the national health literacy questionnaire between September and October 2018. Chi-square test was used to analyze disparities in health literacy level and unconditional logistic regression for categorical variables was adopted to explore influencing factors of health literacy.

  Results  Among the 3 719 respondents with valid information, 13.1% were assessed with adequate overall health literacy and the proportions with adequate major health literacy domains were 19.2% for basic knowledge and theory, 16.6% for healthy lifestyles and 25.7% for fundamental skills, with the highest proportion (40.1%) for safety and first aid and the lowest (8.6%) for health information among the 6 health literacy aspects. The proportion of with adequate health literacy was higher among the respondents aged 25 – 34 years (19.6%) and working in public institutions (17.2%) and the health literacy level was positively correlated with education among the respondents (χ² = 238.96, P < 0.05). Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that following respondents were more likely to have a higher health literacy: aged 35 – 44 years (compared to the aged 15 – 24 years: odds ratio OR = 1.82, 95% confidence interval 95% CI: 1.18 – 2.80), with the education of undergraduate and above (OR = 8.75 95% CI: 5.30 – 14.45), and with the occupation of other than worker/ office clerk (OR = 1.58 95% CI: 1.21 – 2.07).

  Conclusion  The health literacy needs to be improved among residents in Urumqi city and age, education, and occupation are main factors influencing health literacy in the residents.