Investigation of health literacy status and related influencing factors in military health providers of Chinese People’s liberation Army, a cross-sectional study

Objective The aim of this study was to investigate health literacy and analyze its influencing factors in military health providers of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA Army). Methods From November to December 2018, cluster sampling was used to select 1512 military health providers from the Army Medical University. Health literacy was measured by using the Chinese Citizen Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) (2015 edition). Influencing factors that may affect health literacy were assessed using the chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression models. Results The knowledge rate of health literacy was relatively low (21.6%). The knowledge rate of health-related skills (HRS, 18.7%) was the lowest of the three aspects of health literacy, and the knowledge rate of chronic diseases (CD, 19.6%) was the lowest of the six dimensions of health literacy. Participants who were older, were female, were of Han ethnicity, were the only child in their families, came from urban areas, never used tobacco, and had higher household income were likely to have higher health literacy. Conclusion The health literacy levels of military health providers of the PLA Army are relatively low. Further research and health education are necessary to improve health literacy.