Background: Improving health literacy is the key to chronic disease prevention and improved interventions. However, little is known about the status of health literacy and its influencing factors in patients with chronic diseases. Accordingly, this study aimed to explore the different aspects and factors influencing health literacy among patients with chronic diseases in Chongqing, China.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in areas of Chongqing using the 2018 National Questionnaire on Health Literacy of Residents administered to 27,336 patients with chronic diseases.The research investigated the prevalence and factors of health literacy in patients with chronic diseases in Chongqing, China using χ 2 tests and logistic regression analysis.Results: Among the participants (n = 27,336), 51.3% were males and 48.7% were females. Only a small number of patients with chronic diseases were health literate (21.6%). Regression analyses indicated that inadequate health literacy was associated with rural area residents (OR: 0.92), minorities (OR: 1.31), farmers (OR: 1.18), nonlocal registered permanent residents (OR: 1.05), and patients with self-rated unhealthy status (OR: 1.80). Patients with chronic diseases aged 25-34 (OR = 1.18) and 35-44 (OR = 1.18) were more likely to have health literacy than patients with chronic diseases aged 65-69. Illiterate or slightly literate patients (OR = 0.10) were less likely to have health literacy than patients who were in the junior college or had a bachelor's degree or above. Patients with an average annual household income of less than 3,000 yuan (OR = 0.65) were all less likely to have health literacy than patients with an average annual household income of more than 15,000 yuan.
Conclusions: Health literacy of patients with chronic conditions remains at a low level and variessignificantly with their demographic and sociological characteristics. Therefore, developing and adopting appropriate health promotion programs would be necessary to improve the health literacy of all patients with different types of chronic diseases. diseases usually include heart diseases, stroke, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes [1].Chronic diseases account for the increasing numbers of deaths worldwide [2] and have overtaken infectious diseases as the leading cause of mortality worldwide [3]. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 63% of all deaths are due to chronic diseases [1]. Premature mortality caused by chronic diseases accounts for 80% and is concentrated in low-and middle-income countries [3]. In China, chronic diseases have become the main cause of death among Chinese residents, and the prevalence rate is on the rise. From 2003 to 2013, the growth rate of chronic diseases among rural residents was 70.7% and that of urban residents was 28.3% according to the number of patients [4].In 2012, the number of deaths caused by chronic diseases among Chinese residents accounted for 86.6% of all deaths [5]. In addition, chronic diseases were difficult to cure, conseque...