Status and influencing factors of health literacy among college students of traditional Chinese medicine: a cross-sectional study.

Abstract

Background: College students, as the future strength of national development, have a high level of health literacy in line with the goal of "Healthy China", but the current research found that the health literacy level of college students is uneven and needs to be improved, and there is still a lack of research on the health literacy of students in colleges and universities of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Therefore, this study aims to assess the health literacy level of students in TCM colleges and analyze its influencing factors, so as to provide a basis for implementing effective health literacy intervention measures and building healthy schools.

Methods: Using the convenient sampling method, 925 college students in a TCM university in Shandong Province were selected to conduct an online electronic questionnaire survey using "Questionnaire Star" from December 2022 to March 2023. SPSS 22.0 software was used to process and analyze the data. Descriptive statistical analysis was used to analyze the general data of the respondents, chi-square test was used to compare the count data between groups, and Logistic regression model was used to analyze the influencing factors of health literacy.

Results: The health literacy level of TCM college students was 57.30%. Among the three aspects of health literacy, the level from high to low was: healthy lifestyle and behavior literacy (65.41%), health skill literacy (58.70%) and basic knowledge and concept literacy (53.62%). Among the six categories of health literacy, the level of scientific health literacy (79.68%) was the highest, followed by safety and first aid literacy (72.86%), health information literacy (61.62%), basic medical literacy (61.30%), chronic disease prevention literacy (60.11%) and infectious disease prevention literacy (40.86%). The results of multifactorial logistic regression analyses showed that females (AOR: 1.92; 95%CI: 1.40-2.62), college seniors (AOR: 2.02; 95%CI: 1.01-4.05), never smokers (AOR: 2.99; 95%CI: 1.57-5.72), and awareness of the concept of "health literacy" (AOR: 1.54; 95%CI: 1.11-2.13) were protective factors for health literacy, and the health literacy level of students in TCM colleges and universities was statistically significantly positively correlated with their health literacy level (p < 0.050).

Conclusion: Compared with most studies at home and abroad, the overall level of health literacy among students of TCM colleges is high. The healthy lifestyle and behavior literacy of students in TCM colleges is better than knowledge and skill literacy, which is manifested as the separation of knowledge and practice. Gender, grade, smoking or not, being aware of the concept of "health literacy" are the influencing factors of health literacy level of students in TCM colleges.