Increasing Health Literacy in China to Combat Noncommunicable Diseases

Health literacy involves knowledge, motivation, and competence to access, understand, appraise, and apply health information to make judgments and make decisions every day to maintain or improve quality of life. It is of great importance to the health and wellbeing of individuals, families, and society and plays a crucial role in noncommunicable disease (NCD) prevention and control. Recognizing that health literacy is a public health challenge in China, the Chinese government has been making great effort to address this issue. This paper presented a general overview of health literacy status in China with a focus on NCDs, described China’s challenges and practices in improving health literacy, and provided suggestions to decision makers, practitioners, and researchers to address the needs of health literacy in China.