Objective To examine the status and influencing factors of basic medical literacy among residents of Wuhan municipality and to provide theoretical evidences for developing strategies of intervention on basic medical literacy in the residents.

Methods We carried out a face-to-face questionnaire survey among 4 165 residents at ages of 15 – 69 years selected with stratified multi-stage cluster sampling in urban and rural communities of 13 administrative regions across Wuhan city between October and December 2016.

Results Of all the residents surveyed, 12.75% reported the awareness of basic medical literacy and the ratio was significantly higher among the residents in urban areas than among those in rural areas (P < 0.05). The level for awareness of basic medical literacy decreased significantly with the increment of age among the residents (P < 0.05), with the highest basic medical literacy score (7.80 ± 3.25) among the residents aged 15 – 24 years and the lowest (6.10 ± 2.89) among those aged 65 – 69 years; whereas, the basic medical literacy level was positively correlated significantly with education achievement in the residents (P < 0.05), with the highest score (8.96 ± 2.94) among the residents having the education of master degree or above. In addition, the basic medical literacy level differed significantly by occupation and monthly family income among the residents (bothP < 0.05); the residents working as medical personnel and with the monthly family income of 5 000 RMB yuan or more had higher basic medical literacy scores (9.68 ± 2.82 and 7.36 ± 3.02) than the residents with other occupation and lower monthly family income others (P < 0.05). No significant between gender and ethnic groups difference in basic medical literacy level were observed in the residents (P > 0.05).

Conclusion The basic medical literacy is at a low level among adult residents in Wuhan city, suggesting that health education targeted at various populations in the city and specially on seeking medical care and having medication reasonably should be promoted for the improvement of the literacy.