Objective  To study the impact of comprehensive health communication on infectious disease specific health literacy among Chinese population and to provide references for effectively promoting health literacy in Chinese residents.

  Methods  Based on community trail design, we selected 6 sites (urban and rural communities, high schools in urban and rural areas, construction sites, and hotels) in each of the three provinces across China (Zhejiang, Hubei, and Gansu province in eastern, central, and western region) as research settings. Then we recruited 50 residents at each of the research sittings and assigned them randomly into an intervention group with a comprehensive health communication on infectious disease specific health literacy and a control group with a general health literacy promotion between March and August 2016. The effect of the intervention was measured with the Infectious Disease Specific Health Literacy Scale (IDSHL) among the participants sampled from the intervention groups (n = 809 and n = 802) and the control groups (n = 807 and n = 808) before and after the 6-month intervention program.

  Results  No significant differences in overall score and four dimension scores of IDSHL were observed between the participants of the intervention and the control groups before the intervention program (P > 0.05 for all); while after the intervention significantly higher overall and dimension scores were observed among the participants of intervention groups compared to those of the control groups (overall score of IDSHL: 27.86 ± 7.30 vs. 24.25 ± 7.02; basic knowledge and concept on infectious disease: 9.25 ± 3.04 vs. 7.70 ± 2.97; prevention of infectious disease: 7.86 ± 2.15 vs. 7.50 ± 2.19; management and treatment of infectious disease: 5.40 ± 2.39 vs. 4.51 ± 2.55; and cognition on pathogens and pathogenic resources of infectious diseases: 5.35 ± 2.33 vs. 4.54 ± 2.38) (P < 0.01 for all). There were significant differences in the overall score and the four dimension scores of IDSHL for all the participants in both the intervention and the control groups after the intervention (all P < 0.01).

  Conclusion  Comprehensive health communication intervention can effectively improve the infectious diseases specific health literacy among urban and rural residents in China.