The Health Literacy Status and Influencing Factors of Older Population in Xinjiang

BACKGROUND: This study was to investigate the health literacy and influencing factors of older population in pension institution of Xinjiang, China. METHODS: Elderly people were selected from 44 pension institutions in Urumqi, Changji, Karamay and Shihezi and from September 2011 to June 2012 using random layer sampling method. The investigation was carried out by Chinese citizen health literacy questionnaire prepared by the China Health Education Center. Data were analyzed by Oneway ANOVA, multiple linear regression and Pearson correlation analysis. RESULTS: A total of 1396 elderly people met the inclusion criteria and their average age was (77.37 ± 8.48) years. Their average health literacy score was (77.37 ± 8.48) points, which was at a low level. There was significant difference in health literacy score among the factors of age, gender, race, education, household income, marital status and occupation (P<0.05). The independent influencing factors of health literacy were education, race, occupation, household income, age and marital status (P < 0.05). Correlation analysis was conducted between the scores of health knowledge, health belief, health behavior, health skill and total scores of health literacy. Health knowledge scores and total scores had highest correlation (r=0.95), followed by health belief scores and total scores (r=0.81). CONCLUSION: The correlation between health behavior scores and health skill scores was the lowest (r=0.33). The major factors that lead to low health literacy in elderly people are femininity, minority and low levels of education.