Health literacy among residents with different smoking habit in Wuxi city

ObjectiveTo analyze health literacy level among residents with different smoking habit in Wuxi city,and to provide scientific evidences for developing tobacco control strategies.MethodsWith multistage stratified random sampling method,4 321 residents aged 15 to 69 years in Wuxi were investigated,and the demographic distribution of the respondents was adjusted according to the results of the sixth national census in Jiangsu province.ResultsDifferent health literacy levels were observed among residents with different smoking habit.The overall level of adjusted health literacy was 21.55% for ex-smokers,20.36% for non-smokers,19.67% for daily smokers,and only 13.37% for occasional smokers.The highest levels of health related skill and basic medical care issue were found among daily smokers(22.32% and 8.49%) and the lowest among occasional smokers(11.06% and 2.27%).ConclusionThe high level of health literacy may prevent the people from tobacco smoking.The health literacy promotion should be implemented continuously among residents,especially the promotion on attitude towards health and chronic non-communicable diseases related health literacy among smokers.