Health literacy and its effect on chronic disease prevention: evidence from China’s data
Background: Improving health literacy is an important public health goal in many countries. Although many studies have suggested that low health literacy has adverse effects on an individual’s health outcomes, confounding factors are often not accounted. This paper examines the interplay between hea...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2020
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/60831/ |
| _version_ | 1848799811111747584 |
|---|---|
| author | Liu, Lefan Qian, Xujun Chen, Zhuo He, Tianfeng |
| author_facet | Liu, Lefan Qian, Xujun Chen, Zhuo He, Tianfeng |
| author_sort | Liu, Lefan |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Background: Improving health literacy is an important public health goal in many countries. Although many studies have suggested that low health literacy has adverse effects on an individual’s health outcomes, confounding factors are often not accounted. This paper examines the interplay between health literacy and chronic disease prevention.
Methods: A population-based sample of 8194 participants aged 15–69 years old in Ningbo were used from China’s 2017 National Health Literacy Surveillance Data. We use multivariate regression analysis to disentangle the relationship between health literacy and chronic disease prevention.
Results: We find the association between health literacy and the occurrence of the first chronic condition is attenuated after we adjust the results for age and education. This might arise because having one or more chronic conditions is associated with better knowledge about chronic diseases, thus improve their health literacy. More importantly, we find health literacy is associated with a reduction in the likelihood of having a comorbid condition. However, this protective effect is only found among urban residents, suggesting health literacy might be a key factor explaining the rural-urban disparity in health outcomes.
Conclusion: Our findings highlight the important role of health literacy in preventing comorbidities instead of preventing the first chronic condition. Moreover, family support could help improve health literacy and result in beneficial effects on health. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:41:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-60831 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:41:35Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-608312020-06-11T02:25:56Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/60831/ Health literacy and its effect on chronic disease prevention: evidence from China’s data Liu, Lefan Qian, Xujun Chen, Zhuo He, Tianfeng Background: Improving health literacy is an important public health goal in many countries. Although many studies have suggested that low health literacy has adverse effects on an individual’s health outcomes, confounding factors are often not accounted. This paper examines the interplay between health literacy and chronic disease prevention. Methods: A population-based sample of 8194 participants aged 15–69 years old in Ningbo were used from China’s 2017 National Health Literacy Surveillance Data. We use multivariate regression analysis to disentangle the relationship between health literacy and chronic disease prevention. Results: We find the association between health literacy and the occurrence of the first chronic condition is attenuated after we adjust the results for age and education. This might arise because having one or more chronic conditions is associated with better knowledge about chronic diseases, thus improve their health literacy. More importantly, we find health literacy is associated with a reduction in the likelihood of having a comorbid condition. However, this protective effect is only found among urban residents, suggesting health literacy might be a key factor explaining the rural-urban disparity in health outcomes. Conclusion: Our findings highlight the important role of health literacy in preventing comorbidities instead of preventing the first chronic condition. Moreover, family support could help improve health literacy and result in beneficial effects on health. 2020-05-14 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/60831/1/document.pdf Liu, Lefan, Qian, Xujun, Chen, Zhuo and He, Tianfeng (2020) Health literacy and its effect on chronic disease prevention: evidence from China’s data. BMC Public Health, 20 (1). ISSN 1471-2458 Health literacy Chronic disease prevention Risk perception Comorbidity China Rural-urban disparity http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-08804-4 doi: 0.1186/s12889-020-08804-4 doi: 0.1186/s12889-020-08804-4 |
| spellingShingle | Health literacy Chronic disease prevention Risk perception Comorbidity China Rural-urban disparity Liu, Lefan Qian, Xujun Chen, Zhuo He, Tianfeng Health literacy and its effect on chronic disease prevention: evidence from China’s data |
| title | Health literacy and its effect on chronic disease prevention: evidence from China’s data |
| title_full | Health literacy and its effect on chronic disease prevention: evidence from China’s data |
| title_fullStr | Health literacy and its effect on chronic disease prevention: evidence from China’s data |
| title_full_unstemmed | Health literacy and its effect on chronic disease prevention: evidence from China’s data |
| title_short | Health literacy and its effect on chronic disease prevention: evidence from China’s data |
| title_sort | health literacy and its effect on chronic disease prevention: evidence from china’s data |
| topic | Health literacy Chronic disease prevention Risk perception Comorbidity China Rural-urban disparity |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/60831/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/60831/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/60831/ |