The status quo and influencing factors of health literacy in nursing homes of Urumuqi

Objective To investigate the status quo and influencing factors of health literacy in nursing homes of Urumuqi. Methods Fifteen out of twenty-seven registered nursing homes were extracted by using stratified cluster random sampling method during September 2011 and June 2012.A questionnaire was developed by Health Education Center of China.The influencing factors and dimensional relations of health literacy were explored through one-way ANOVA, multiple linear regression and Pearson correlation analysis. Results A total of 317 elderly people (average age (77.5±9.2) years old) were interviewed, and their health literacy scores were (72.9±31.3). The single factor analysis showed that the health literacy score was affected by race, education level and previous profession (t=3.190, F values were 19.609 and 9.777; all P<0.05). In multiple linear regression analysis, race, education level and previous profession(managers, professional and technical personnel, production personnel)were the major factors affecting health literacy in elderly people (t values were 6.624, -3.121, 4.471, 3.727 and 3.256 respectively; all P<0.05). Health knowledge (r=0.965), attitude (r=0.809), behavior (r=0.569) and skills (r=0.732) were correlated with health literacy.The strongest correlation was found between health knowledge and health literacy (r=0.965), while the weakest was identified between health attitude and skills (r=0.410). Conclusions The health literacy may be low in nursing homes of Urumuqi.Minority, lower education level and previous profession could be its major influencing factors. Key words: Health literacy; Aged; Factor analysis, statistical