On April 24, the National Health Commission released the 2023 monitoring of the health literacy of Chinese residents.
The monitoring results show that the health literacy level of mainland residents will reach 29.70% in 2023, an increase of 1.92 percentage points over 2022, and continue to show a steady improvement trend.
Health literacy refers to an individual's ability to access and understand essential health information and services, and to use them and services to make sound decisions to maintain and promote their own health.
"Residents' health literacy level" is a comprehensive evaluation index that reflects the level of economic and social development and the health level of the people, and has been included in a number of national assessments, and has become an important indicator to measure the level of basic public services and the health level of the people. The Healthy China Action Plan (2019-2030) proposes that by 2030, the health literacy level of national residents should not be less than 30%.
The results of this monitoring show that——
(1) The level of health literacy in different regions and different groups of people in the mainland has been improved, and the gap between urban and rural areas has been further narrowed.
In 2023, the health literacy level of urban residents and rural residents will be 33.25% and 26.23%, an increase of 1.31 and 2.45 percentage points respectively compared with 2022, and the gap between urban and rural areas will be further narrowed.
The health literacy levels of residents in the eastern, central and western regions were 33.30%, 28.85% and 24.44%, respectively, an increase of 1.42, 2.15 and 1.88 percentage points compared with 2022, and the gap between the eastern region and the central and western regions narrowed.
(2) The level of health literacy continued to improve in three aspects, and the improvement of healthy lifestyle and behavior literacy was larger.
In 2023, the level of basic knowledge and concept literacy, the level of healthy lifestyle and behavior literacy will be 32.21%, and the level of basic skill literacy will be 26.76%, respectively, an increase of 0.74, 1.58, and 0.76 percentage points compared with 2022.
The level of health literacy in knowledge, behavior, and skills has improved compared with 2022, among which the level of healthy lifestyle and behavioral literacy has increased the most.
(3) Among the six types of health problem literacy, chronic disease prevention and control literacy and health information literacy have been greatly improved.
In 2023, the literacy level of the six types of health problems of Chinese residents from high to low is as follows: safety and first aid literacy (59.33%), scientific health concept literacy (54.71%), health information literacy (41.05%), chronic disease prevention and control literacy (30.43%), basic medical literacy (28.84%), and infectious disease prevention and control literacy (28.02%).
Among them, the level of chronic disease prevention and treatment literacy increased the most, with an increase of 1.58 percentage points compared with 2022, followed by health information literacy, which increased by 1.24 percentage points compared with 2022.
The monitoring covered 1,008 townships (sub-districts) in 336 counties (districts) in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government), targeting the permanent resident population aged 15-69, and a total of 73,340 valid questionnaires were obtained.
Edit | Yin Zhen Editor-in-charge| Zhang Xiuli
Source | The official website of the National Health Commission Xinhua News Agency
Produced by the Guangdong Health Online all-media team