[Association of health literacy and physical sub-health among Chinese middle school students].

OBJECTIVE

To examine the association between health literacy( HL) and physical sub-health in middle school students.

METHODS

From November 2015 to January 2016, a multi-stage convenient cluster sampling method was adopted to conduct a questionnaire survey among 22 628 middle school students from grade 7 to grade12 in Shenyang, Bengbu, Xinxiang, Ulanqab, Chongqing and Yangjiang, among whom10 990( 48. 6%) were boys and 11 638( 51. 4%) were girls. The Chinese Adolescent Interactive Health Literacy Questionnaire( CAIHLQ), the Multidimensional Sub-health Questionnaire of Adolescents( MSQA) and demographic variables were used to measure the Chinese middle school students ' HL and physical sub-health.

RESULTS

The detection rate of physical sub-health was 30. 1%( 6822/22628). High school students reported more physical sub-health than junior school students. The detection rate of physical sub-health in developed area, being only children, resident students, with low socio-economic status was significantly higher detection rate of sub-health than their peers( P< 0. 001). The scores of CAIHLQ was( 104. 06 ± 18. 68). Students who were boys, junior school students, urban residence, only children in family, non-resident students, higher parental education level and lower family income had significantly higher HL scores than the correspnding other students( χ~2= 44. 62, 455. 21, 133. 54, 35. 04, 326. 06, 272. 09, 366. 19 and 572. 35, P < 0. 001). Multiple Logistic regression analysis showed that moderate or low level of overall HL and six dimensions increase the risk of physical sub-health.

CONCLUSION

School type, whether it is an economically developed area, whether it is an only child, whether it lives in the school on the study day, and selfassessment of family economic conditions affecting physical sub-health, lower HL may increase the risk of physical subhealth among middle school students.