Health literacy in rural areas of China: hypertension knowledge survey.

Xia Li,Lijun Gao,Mingli Jiao,Qunhong Wu,Hude Quan,Hong Sun,Ning Ning,Yanhua Hao

doi:10.3390/ijerph10031125

Abstract

We conducted this study to determine levels and correlates of hypertension knowledge among rural Chinese adults, and to assess the association between knowledge levels and salty food consumption among hypertensive and non-hypertensive populations. This face-to-face cross sectional survey included 665 hypertensive and 854 non-hypertensive respondents in the rural areas of Heilongjiang province, China. Hypertension knowledge was assessed through a 10-item test; respondents received 10 points for each correct answer. Among respondents, the average hypertension knowledge score was 26 out of a maximum of 100 points for hypertensive and 20 for non-hypertensive respondents. Hypertension knowledge was associated with marital status, education, health status, periodically reading books, newspapers or other materials, history of blood pressure measurement, and attending hypertension educational sessions. Hypertension knowledge is extremely low in rural areas of China. Hypertension education programs should focus on marginal populations, such as individuals who are not married or illiterate to enhance their knowledge levels. Focusing on educational and literacy levels in conjunction with health education is important given illiteracy is still a prominent issue for the Chinese rural population.

Highlights

China is a large country with a population of about 1.339 billion, 50.3% of whom reside in rural areas [1] and has the largest hypertensive population in the World [2,3]
The hypertension knowledge level in China rural areas we reported is much lower than previous reports from western countries [20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27]
Our study demonstrated that hypertension knowledge levels were associated with marital status, education, health status, periodically reading books, newspapers or other materials, history of blood pressure measurement, and attending hypertension educational sessions provided by clinicians

Summary

Introduction

China is a large country with a population of about 1.339 billion, 50.3% of whom reside in rural areas [1] and has the largest hypertensive population in the World [2,3]. From 1991 to 2002, hypertension prevalence increased from 16.3% to 21.0% among urban adults, and from 11.1% to. The increase in prevalence in rural areas is due to economic development, resulting in the adoption of urban lifestyles, as well as improved case-finding [6,7]. Hypertension-related diseases cost 31.89 billion Yuan Renminbi (RMB, approximately 4.8 billion dollars US) per year and result in about 11.4 years of life lost [8,9]. Chronic disease prevention has been identified as a high public health need in China’s 2009 health reforms, with national and local governments allocating 15 Yuan (approximately 2.2 dollars US) per person per year for basic public health services, including chronic disease prevention, with high priority placed on hypertension prevention and management [10]. Primary care physicians are required to measure blood pressure, register and follow-up with patients, and provide hypertension education [11,12]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion