Family-based improvement for health literacy among the Yi nationality (FAMILY) in Liangshan: protocol of an open cohort stepped wedge cluster randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Improvement of health literacy constitutes a cornerstone to improving public health. However, the overall health literacy of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture (Liangshan Prefecture) in the southwest Sichuan Province of China has kept extremely low for a long time. How to improve health literacy of the Yi nationality residents is key to be urgently solved. Notably, Family Branch System is a distinctive patrilineal bloodline organization of Yi nationality, which plays an important role in the daily life of Yi nationality. Meanwhile, Contracted Family Doctor Services is conducted in Liangshan Prefecture. Therefore, this study proposes an intervention model of health education based on Family Branch System and Contracted Family Doctor Services, which is a Family-based Improvement for Health Literacy among the Yi nationality (FAMILY) in Liangshan, when improving traditional Innovative Care for Chronic Conditions Framework (ICCC) framework. METHODS: An open cohort stepped wedge cluster randomized trial design is used to implement health literacy education interventions including project preparation, core group building, promotion within family branch and competition between family branches while using Contracted Family Doctor Services as control measure. The study will be conducted among Yi nationality residents in Meigu County and Yanyuan County, with health literacy level of residents as the primary outcome. Finally, mixed-effects model and causal inference method will be used to evaluate intervention effect. DISCUSSION: This study highlights family, using the unique Family Branch System and Contracted Family Doctor Services in Liangshan Prefecture to design intervention among improved ICCC framework, and combines the mixed-effects model with complier average causal effects (CACE) to estimate the intervention effect under non-compliance for the first time. Besides, other key technologies to be adopted include construction of electronic questionnaire quality control system, with quality control based on artificial intelligence. This trial contributes to exploring an effective way to improve health literacy of Yi nationality residents in Liangshan Prefecture, which will provide reference for other areas, especially poor areas, to improve residents’ health literacy. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN11299863 on June 1, 2022; https://www.isrctn.com/. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-022-13782-w.