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Learn more about In Review
Research article
Tianfeng He
Ningbo Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Corresponding Author
License:
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
The most recent version of this article is available here.
Background: Improving health literacy is an important public health goal in many countries. Although many studies have suggested that low health literacy has adverse effects on an individual’s health outcomes, factors that may be confounding the relationship between health literacy and health outcomes are often not accounted. This paper examines the interplay between health literacy and chronic disease prevention.
Methods: A sample of 2,835 residents aged 14-71 years old in Ningbo province of China were selected from China’s National Health Literacy Surveillance Survey in 2017. The multivariate regression analysis is used to untangle the relationship between health literacy and chronic disease prevention.
Results: We find the association between health literacy and the occurrence of the first chronic condition is attenuated after we adjust the results for age and education. In contrast, we find having one or more chronic conditions leads to better knowledge about chronic diseases and thus improved health literacy on chronic disease prevention. Thus, when a respondent has one chronic disease, health literacy could reduce the incidence of a new chronic condition (comorbidities). However, the protective effect of health literacy is only found among our urban sample, suggesting health literacy might be a key factor explaining the rural-urban disparity in health outcomes.
Conclusion: Our findings highlight that health literacy plays a more important role in helping individuals preventing comorbidity than preventing their first chronic disease. Moreover, family support could be a potential channel through which health literacy accumulates and results in beneficial effects on health.
Keywords
health literacy, chronic disease prevention, rural-urban disparity
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CURRENT STATUS: Under Review
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On 14 Apr, 2020
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On 13 Apr, 2020
Version 1
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On 16 Mar, 2020
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Received 16 Mar, 2020
Editorial decision: Major revision
On 16 Mar, 2020
Review #1 received
Received 15 Feb, 2020
Reviewer #1 agreed
On 26 Jan, 2020
Reviewers invited
Invitations sent on 26 Nov, 2019
Editor assigned
On 14 Nov, 2019
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On 13 Nov, 2019
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On 13 Nov, 2019
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On 28 Oct, 2019
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This preprint is under consideration at BMC Public Health. A preprint is a preliminary version of a manuscript that has not completed peer review at a journal. Research Square does not conduct peer review prior to posting preprints. The posting of a preprint on this server should not be interpreted as an endorsement of its validity or suitability for dissemination as established information or for guiding clinical practice.
Learn more about In Review
Research article
Tianfeng He
Ningbo Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Corresponding Author
Badges
Prescreen
This manuscript passed our Prescreen assessment
Complete author information
Appropriate declaration statements
Potential risks to human health
Prescreen
Peer Review Timeline
CURRENT STATUS: Under Review
No community comments so far
Submission checks complete
On 27 Feb, 2020
No comments provided
Editorial decision: Minor revision
On 17 Apr, 2020
Editor assigned
On 14 Apr, 2020
Submission checks complete
On 13 Apr, 2020
Editor invited
On 13 Apr, 2020
Version 1
Posted 02 Mar, 2020
No comments provided
Reviewer #2 agreed
On 16 Mar, 2020
Review #2 received
Received 16 Mar, 2020
Editorial decision: Major revision
On 16 Mar, 2020
Review #1 received
Received 15 Feb, 2020
Reviewer #1 agreed
On 26 Jan, 2020
Reviewers invited
Invitations sent on 26 Nov, 2019
Editor assigned
On 14 Nov, 2019
Submission checks complete
On 13 Nov, 2019
Editor invited
On 13 Nov, 2019
First submitted
On 28 Oct, 2019
Metrics
Comments: 0
PDF Downloads: ...
HTML Views: ...
License:
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
The most recent version of this article is available here.
Background: Improving health literacy is an important public health goal in many countries. Although many studies have suggested that low health literacy has adverse effects on an individual’s health outcomes, factors that may be confounding the relationship between health literacy and health outcomes are often not accounted. This paper examines the interplay between health literacy and chronic disease prevention.
Methods: A sample of 2,835 residents aged 14-71 years old in Ningbo province of China were selected from China’s National Health Literacy Surveillance Survey in 2017. The multivariate regression analysis is used to untangle the relationship between health literacy and chronic disease prevention.
Results: We find the association between health literacy and the occurrence of the first chronic condition is attenuated after we adjust the results for age and education. In contrast, we find having one or more chronic conditions leads to better knowledge about chronic diseases and thus improved health literacy on chronic disease prevention. Thus, when a respondent has one chronic disease, health literacy could reduce the incidence of a new chronic condition (comorbidities). However, the protective effect of health literacy is only found among our urban sample, suggesting health literacy might be a key factor explaining the rural-urban disparity in health outcomes.
Conclusion: Our findings highlight that health literacy plays a more important role in helping individuals preventing comorbidity than preventing their first chronic disease. Moreover, family support could be a potential channel through which health literacy accumulates and results in beneficial effects on health.
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