Central China Region Research Articles

Analysis of the non-linear impact of innovation capacity on industrial structure

Promoting industrial structure upgrade, upgrading industrial structure and solving the contradictions existing in industrial structure are the key concerns of economic development in this era. Based on this, this paper takes 30 provinces, municipalities directly under the central government and autonomous regions of China from 2009 to 2019 as research samples to study the influence of innovation capacity on industrial structure. The research results show that the influence of innovation capacity on industrial structure is in an inverted "U" shape, and the current innovation development is in the stage of inhibiting the development of industrial structure, but with the continuous improvement of innovation capacity, the subsequent development of industrial structure will be promoted. The size of the government and the economy of developed regions have a positive effect on the development of industrial structure, while the increase of urbanization level has an inhibiting effect on the development of industrial structure. Therefore, each region should continuously increase innovation investment and promote the combination of industry, academia and research, so as to promote the upgrading and development of industrial structure.

HOUSING DIFFERENCES, CREDIT CONSTRAINTS, AND HOUSEHOLD ENERGY CONSUMPTION: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY FROM HOUSEHOLD TRACKING SURVEY DATA IN CHINA

ABSTRACT Although many studies have shown that housing wealth impacts household consumption behavior patterns, they have not incorporated housing characteristics into their research framework. Against the background of China’s reformed housing system, this study therefore constructs a theoretical framework of housing differences, credit constraints, and household energy consumption by adopting sample data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) of 7064 households in 25 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China. Multiple regression methodology is used based on the emission peak and carbon neutrality goal proposed by the Chinese government in 2021. The results show that housing differences significantly impact household energy consumption; housing assets have a significant wealth effect on household energy consumption; energy consumption of house owners increases due to the appreciation of their housing; and that the housing proportion of a household’s gross assets has a significant negative impact on household energy consumption. Furthermore, based on spatial distribution, it is found that the energy consumption level of households with housing properties in the developed regions of central and eastern China is significantly higher than that in the western regions. The study provides empirical evidence for China to build a linkage mechanism between energy policy and real estate policy and provides empirical support for the implementation of differentiated policies of energy consumption.

Study on Planning Layout and Spatial Form of the Third-Line Construction in North Sichuan— Taking Four Cities in Northern Sichuan as Examples

From 1964 to 1983, as a large-scale construction activity of national defense, science and technology, industry and transportation infrastructure with the goal of war readiness, was rapidly launched in the hinterland of China, the development and evolution of the Third-line Construction (“Third-line construction” refers to a large-scale national defense, science and technology, industrial and transportation infrastructure construction activity guided by war preparedness carried out in 13 provinces and autonomous regions in the central and western regions of China from 1964 to 1983, and its development and evolution promoted the development and rise of modern industry in Sichuan, and profoundly affected the formation and evolution of urban pattern and urbanization process in Sichuan.) promoted the development and rise of modern industry in Sichuan, and profoundly affected the formation and evolution of urban pattern and urbanization process in Sichuan. Under the unified planning and deployment of the central government, most of the Third-line Construction projects in Sichuan were distributed along the main railway lines and rivers, and an industrial agglomeration belt with Guangyuan, Jiangyou, Mianyang and Deyang as the main nodes was gradually formed in the north of Sichuan. By analyzing the characteristics of Third-line Construction planning layout and the spatial form composition of the remaining factories in the north of Sichuan, the paper tries to explore the influencing factors of the layout of Third-line industrial plants in the north of Sichuan. In addition, a large number of Third-line industrial remains are used inefficiently or even abandoned, and the value of the precious Third-line industrial remains is at risk of loss and vanishing. How to better excavate, protect and inherit the value of Third-line industrial remains is the key concern of the study of Third-line Construction. This paper introduces the relevant theoretical methods of urban morphology, and summarizes and analyzes the distribution, composition and characteristics of the building communities in the factory area by combing the spatial organization form and functional structure of the industrial relics of the third-line construction in the four cities in northern Sichuan. On the basis of the current situation of a large number of third-line construction remains, the composition and evolution of the factory space were discussed, and the influencing factors and their impact on the later urban planning and social and economic development were explored, so as to enrich the research on the planning layout and protection and utilization of the third-line construction industrial remains.

Research on the Spatial Effect of Government Science and Technology Expenditure on the Development of Digital Economy

In the context of a unified large market, the development of digital economy has become the focus. Based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020, this paper uses the spatial Durbin model to examine the impact of government spending on digital economy through different spatial weight matrices. The research results show that: 1) The government science and technology expenditure in all provinces in China has a significant positive spatial correlation with the level of digital economy development; 2) The comparative analysis of different weight matrices show that the impact of local government science and technology expenditure on the level of digital economy development is significant and positive, and there is a certain spatial spillover effect; 3) Through the heterogeneity test, the spillover effect of the central and western regions of China is more obvious under the setting of the geographical weight matrix, and the spillover effect of the east is more obvious under the setting of the economic matrix weight. At the same time, this study expands the research on the influencing factors of the development level of the digital economy, and puts forward policy recommendations corresponding to government science and technology expenditure and the development of the digital economy based on the empirical results.

Mask-Wearing and Handwashing Behaviors of Chinese Rural Residents during the Pandemic of COVID-19: A Cross-Sectional Survey

To understand mask-wearing and handwashing behaviors of Chinese rural residents during the COVID-19 pandemic and to analyze the associated factors. This study used a multi-stage random sampling method to conduct a cross-sectional questionnaire survey during the period of July to December of 2021, in six counties located in Shandong, Shanxi, and Yunnan provinces representing the eastern, central, and western regions of China, respectively. A total of 3864 villagers were surveyed with a questionnaire, and 3832 valid questionnaires were finally analyzed. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were used for statistical analysis. Around ninety-four percent (93.6%) of rural residents reported mask-wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic, but only 44.5% of them could replace masks in time. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that those who were female, aged 15-59, had an education level of high school and above, were divorced/widowed, worked as farmers (workers), or were rural residents in Shandong Province were more likely to wear masks. Furthermore, those who were female, aged 15-59, had an education level of high school and above, were unmarried and married, were business and service workers, or were rural residents in Shandong and Shanxi Province replaced masks more timely. Around seventy percent (69.7%) of rural residents reported using soap when washing their hands, but only 38.0% of rural residents could wash their hands properly. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that rural residents who were aged 35-59, had an education of high school and above, or lived in Shandong Province and Shanxi Province were more likely to wash their hands with soap. Those who were aged 15-59, had an education of high school and above, worked as farmers (workers), were employees of governmental departments and retirees, were business and service workers, or were students had higher proper handwashing rates. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the proportion of Chinese rural residents wearing masks reached 93.6%, but only 44.5% were able to replace masks in time, gender, age, education level, marital status, occupation, and living place had an impact on mask-wearing. The proportion of Chinese rural residents who could wash hands with soap reached 69.7%, but only 38.0% could wash their hands properly. Age and education level were influencing factors for both washing-hand with soap and proper handwashing.

A perspective from the past in conservation of plant biodiversity in central China

Biodiversity has increasingly come under threat from human activity everywhere on Earth. China, with over 33,000 species of vascular plants, is a megadiverse region, in part because of its diversity in topography and climates. One of its most extensive biomes is broadleaved evergreen/warm mixed forest which dominates eastern Asia and Central China. There is some debate about how glacial/interglacial cycles across the Quaternary had an impact on this biome. There were certainly broad scale changes in distribution of many key species. Here, we examine the four palaeoecological records from Central China that contain both LGM and Mid-Holocene vegetation records and consider the degree of biodiversity in Central China with the aim of developing a broad overview of the history on plants in the region. It is clear that in the mountainous regions of Central China, many taxa survived the LGM in situ, showing that there was enough stable habitat to support key species. Some mountainous areas have high degrees of endemism which suggests that fragmentation of populations across glacial/interglacial cycles may have been an important component in favoring speciation. The consideration of past records and modern species distributions have significance in selecting conservation areas.

Impact of off-farm employment on cooking fuel choices: Implications for rural-urban transformation in advancing sustainable energy transformation

Off-farm employment is a prominent manifestation of rural-urban transformation in developing countries, and it theoretically plays a critical role in rural sustainable energy transformation. Exploiting the nationally representative household-level panel data from the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS), this study employs a multi-dimensional fixed-effects (MDFE) model, an inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) technique and a propensity score matching (PSM) approach to investigate the impact of off-farm employment on cooking fuel choices. The results show that off-farm employment exerts a positive and significant impact on the probability of adopting clean fuels for cooking, with specific reductions in biomass and coal and increases in electricity and gas. Furthermore, this effect is mainly realized by reducing the amount of available labor, the number of family meals, and increasing kitchen equipment purchases. However, the relationship between off-farm employment and cooking fuel choices varies considerably across the region, village and household groups. Off-farm employment mainly benefits the eastern, central and western regions of China, villages in plain areas, with brick-concrete houses and ethnic Han Chinese, households with children or the elderly, with poor health and more females, while it is less beneficial for others. The study highlights the important policy implications of rural-urban transition for sustainable energy transition through the creation of off-farm jobs.

The role of different paths of technological progress in improving China's energy efficiency

Improving energy efficiency is one of the most effective ways to address environmental constraints and achieve high-quality economic development. The existing literature suggests that technological progress has an important impact on energy efficiency, but ignores the role of different paths of technological progress. Herein, the impact of different technological progress paths on energy efficiency was analyzed using the dynamic panel data model and the threshold model based on the energy efficiency measurement using the Meta-frontier and Nonradial Directional Distance Function model. The findings of this study were as follows: (1) During the study sample period, a fluctuating upward trend was observed in China's energy efficiency, and there were significant differences in energy efficiency in different regions of China. (2) The energy efficiency in China could be significantly improved by domestic innovation and regional technology diffusion. Even though the imported technologies do not play a significant role in promoting energy efficiency and have no positive effect on the improvement of energy efficiency from the perspective of domestic technology absorption or foreign technology absorption. (3) The eastern and central regions of China improve their energy efficiency through domestic innovation. However, none of the technological progress paths in the western and low-energy-efficiency regions have played a positive role in promoting energy efficiency. (4) The effect of promoting domestic innovation and regional technology diffusion on energy efficiency is gradually increasing with human capital improvement, and the restriction of foreign technology import on energy efficiency has obviously decreased. In a nutshell, different paths of technological progress have differential effects on energy efficiency improvements. Based on the above results, this paper makes some targeted policy recommendations on the choice of technological progress paths to improve energy efficiency in different regions of China.

Global trends in the aerosol optical, physical, and morphological properties obtained using multi-sensor measurements

Numerous studies have been carried out to examine the trends in the rapidly changing aerosol loading through the total Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) but very few investigations have acknowledged its long-term implications through the combined optical, physical, and morphological properties of the aerosols. Using a multivariate linear regression trend analysis model on nearly two decades (i.e., 2001–2020) of multi-source global datasets, we tried to relate the contribution of each of the varying aerosol properties such as scattering, absorption, size, and shape, to the changing total AOD trends of that sensor. Region-wise analysis has shown that the decrease (increase) in the total AOD trends observed over North-Eastern America, South America, Europe, North-Western Africa, and Eastern and Central China (Indian) regions are mainly in connection with the decrease (increase) in the fine-mode and scattering aerosols. However, the major increase over the South African region is from the increase in absorbing and scattering aerosols. Interestingly, the Indo-Gangetic Plain region of India, where high total AOD trends are observed, has seen a plausible slight decrease in its absorbing, non-spherical, and coarse-mode aerosols in recent years. This study also details the region-wise response accompanying the implementation of stringent mitigation strategies to ensure accurate quantification of the changing aerosol patterns in the atmosphere.

DIGITIZATION AND TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY: EVIDENCE FROM CHINA

This study calculates China’s provincial total factor productivity (TFP) and decomposition indexes. Then, a system of indicators is constructed to measure digitization, and an empirical analysis is conducted. The results show that (1) digitization can significantly improve TFP, especially technical efficiency, largely due to the increase in factor allocation efficiency and the quality of technological innovation resulting from digitization, a finding that remains valid even after a series of robustness tests. (2) The effect of digitization on the improvement of TFP is more pronounced in the central and western regions of China than in the east and more pronounced when economic development is in the service stage. The existence of a digital divide can diminish the positive effects of digitization. The regression results by industry show that digitization has a more significant positive impact on TFP in the secondary and tertiary industries than in the primary industries. (3) Further analysis shows that the process of digitization in raising TFP is nonlinear and that the positive effect of digitization on TFP is stronger when the level of industrial structure crosses the threshold. The findings of this paper bear some beneficial policy implications.

Self-medication in Chinese residents and the related factors of whether or not they would take suggestions from medical staff as an important consideration during self-medication.

To investigate the status of Chinese residents' self-medication behavior and the important factors to consider when purchasing OTC drugs, and to explore the related factors of the possibility that Chinese residents take medical staff's suggestions as important factors to consider when purchasing OTC drugs. A cross-sectional survey. A questionnaire was developed for exploring the sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents, their self-medication status, and important considerations. The questionnaire includes several scales including Health Literacy Scale-Short Form (HLS-SF), EQ-5D Visual Analog Scale (EQ-5D-VAS), Big Five Inventary-10 Items (BFI-10), and New General Self Efficacy Scale (NGSES). After carrying out a multi-stage sampling method, the questionnaire was conducted nationwide from July 10 to September 15, 2021. Next, descriptive statistics were conducted to analyze the general features. Logistic regression was then used to analyze the related factors of the possibility that the respondents took the suggestions of medical staff as an important consideration when purchasing OTC drugs. Nine thousand two hundred fifty-six qualified questionnaires were received. 99.06% of Chinese adults had self-medication behaviors. The types of OTC drugs purchased most by the respondents were NSAIDs (5,421/9,256 people, 58.57%) and vitamins/minerals (4,851/9,256 people, 52.41%). 86.2% of the respondents took the suggestions of medical staff as an important consideration when purchasing OTC drugs. The results of multi-factor logistic regression showed that women, those living in the central and western regions of China, those suffering from chronic diseases, those with high agreeableness, high conscientiousness, high neuroticism and openness, high health literacy, high EQ-5D-VAS, and those with high self-efficacy are more likely to take medical staff's suggestions as important factors to consider. The vast majority of Chinese adults have self-medication behavior. Important considerations when purchasing OTC drugs include medical staff's suggestions, drug safety and drug efficacy. Whether residents take the suggestions of medical staff as an important consideration is related to their sociological characteristics, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness, health literacy, self-assessment health status, and self-efficacy. When purchasing and using OTC drugs, residents should carefully listen to the suggestions from medical staff. They should also carefully consider their own conditions before buying OTC drugs.

Quantifying the Competitiveness of Cultural Industry and Its Impacts on Chinese Economic Growth

One potential way to promote China’s economic growth is to develop a cultural industry and enhance its competitiveness. To confirm this hypothesis, this study first utilizes the five-element diamond model, principal component analysis, and factor analysis to evaluate the competitiveness of the cultural industry in the 31 Chinese provinces during the period 2013–2019. The results reveal that the competitiveness of cultural industry in the eastern region is the strongest, followed in descending order by the central, northeastern, and western regions of China. Then, the panel regression is employed to explore the impact of the cultural industry’s competitiveness index on economic growth. The results indicate that the cultural industry’s competitiveness is positively associated with China’s economic growth. We also conduct another panel regression analysis by examining the impact of cultural industry factors on China’s economic growth to gain insight into the influence of the cultural industry components on growth. In this analysis, our results indicate that cultural industry factors, including fixed asset investment and labor, significantly play an important role in Chinese growth. This study also finds that total patent applications, the total profit of cultural enterprises, and government expenditure positively impact economic growth, but the evidence is weak. Thus, these three variables could be considered potential future driver factors. The empirical findings offer insights into strategies that the national government could implement to strengthen the cultural industry’s competitiveness as China’s new powerful driver of economic development. Compared with previous empirical studies, this research deepens the competitive cultural analysis, increases the number of observations, and lengthens the period studied.

Wind Characteristics in the Surface Layer on Different Underlying Surfaces in High Altitude Areas of Central and Western China

To explore the influence of complex terrain on wind characteristics of the surface layer and to better develop and utilize wind energy resources of high-altitude regions in central and western China, two typical topographies: the Qiaodi Village in Sichuan (in western China, site 1) and the Nanhua Mountain in Shanxi (in central China, site 2), were selected for this study. The diurnal and monthly variations of the atmospheric stability were contrasted at the two sites, according to the Obukhov length calculated by the eddy covariance data. The energy exchange process between complex underlying surfaces and the atmospheric boundary layer can be reflected to a certain extent by investigating the diurnal variation differences of the turbulent fluxes at the two sites. The results show that: (1) the dominant boundary layer at site 1 during nighttime is the neutral boundary layer, while at site 2 it is the stable; (2) the horizontal wind speed at 10 m above the ground is the highest (lowest) in the neutral (unstable) boundary layer at site 1, while it is the highest (lowest) in the neutral and weak-unstable (stable) boundary layer at site 2, and (3) the momentum flux, sensible heat flux, and latent heat flux all show unimodal diurnal characteristics. There is a 1 h lag in the flux peak at site 1 compared to site 2.

Subjective Social Class and the Retention Intentions of Teachers from the Publicly Funded Normal Students Program in China: The Dual Mediating Effect of Organizational and Professional Identity

A stable teaching force is an important guarantee for the sustainable development of education. Teacher turnover is one of the reasons for the teacher shortage in rural areas. Although studies have examined the influencing factors of teachers’ turnover intention, little is known about the effect of subjective social status on teachers’ turnover intention, especially for publicly funded normal students program (PFNSP) teachers who play a vital role in improving the quality of education in less developed regions of central and western China. A questionnaire survey was conducted, which returned a total of 16,731 responses (8141 public recruited teachers and 1498 teachers from PFNSP). The study explores the influence of subjective social class on PFNSP teachers’ retention intention and the mediating role of organizational and professional identity on this impact. Except for organizational identity, the subjective social class, professional identity, and retention intentions of PFNSP teachers were significantly lower than those of publicly recruited teachers. There was a significant association between subjective social class and retention intentions of PFNSP teachers. In addition, organizational identity and professional identity had a significant positive relationship to PFNSP teachers’ retention intention, and played partial mediating roles in the relationship between subjective social class and retention intentions.

Urban development sustainability, industrial structure adjustment, and land use efficiency in China

It remains unclear on how industrial structure adjustment interacts with urban land use efficiency and how urbanization affects their interaction, despite its significance for urban development sustainability. We explore such interactions in China based on a panel dataset of 31 provincial administrative units from 1978 to 2018. The results show that as urbanization proceeds, the industrial structure optimization exhibits a positive linear correlation with urban land use efficiency, while the relationship between industrial structure upgrade and urban land use efficiency depends on level of urbanization, which follows an inverted U-shape. The effect of urban land use efficiency on the optimization of industrial structure is divergent across provinces. We also find that a higher level of urbanization facilitates the positive interactions between industrial structure adjustment and urban land use efficiency in the central and western regions of China, but the effect is attenuated in eastern China. We propose policy recommendations tailored to different regions with distinct levels of economic development status and industrial structure for urban development sustainability.

Validity and Reliability of the Parental Health Literacy Questionnaire for Caregivers of Children Aged 0 to 3 Years in China

Caregivers' health literacy plays a vital role in the quality of parenting and significantly impacts children's physical and psychological health. However, the instruments to assess the health literacy of caregivers of children aged 0 to 3 years are lacking. This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Chinese Parental Health Literacy Questionnaire (CPHLQ) in China. We conducted a cross-sectional study. Six hundred and thirty-four caregivers of children aged 0 to 3 years were recruited from Shandong, Yunnan, and Shaanxi Provinces, representing the eastern, central, and western regions of China, between November 2020 and January 2021. The reliability was evaluated by internal consistency reliability and split-half reliability. The construct validity was determined by confirmatory factor analysis. Social determinants of parental health literacy were assessed by multivariate linear regression model. Results showed that CPHLQ had satisfactory reliability and acceptable construct validity. Mothers compared to other types of caregivers, higher education levels, and nuclear or extended families compared to other family compositions were significantly associated with higher parental health literacy. The study further demonstrated that CPHLQ is a reliable and valid instrument to measure the health literacy of caregivers of children aged 0 to 3 years in the Chinese population. It can be used as an evaluation tool for intervention research, to inform policy-making and future health education interventions of improving caregivers' health literacy.

Exploring the role of technology innovation and environmental regulation in energy efficiency

This study adopts a relatively infrequent approach to explore the impact of environmental regulation and technological innovation on energy efficiency (EFF) based on the undesired superefficiency SBM and random Tobit model. To study the universal EFF, we establish the undesired superefficiency SBM model, which is composed of three input indexes such as energy, one expected output index, and three pollution emissions as the undesired output index, consider the EFF of the sample with an effective decision-making unit (DMU) value less than 1, and calculate with the MATLAB software, according to panel data of 30 Chinese provincial-level regions from 2001 to 2019. The empirical results show that the EFF has an N-type trend in the eastern, central, and western regions of China. When exploring the impact of environmental regulation and technological innovation on EFF, we conduct an empirical analysis of the eastern, central, and western regions with the random Tobit model. The regression results indicate that the impact of environmental regulation on EFF in the different regions varies significantly. Technological innovation has different impacts on EFF in different regions and is the main influencing factor of EFF. Moreover, we strive to analyze the impact of cross-term environmental regulation and technological innovation and find that the cross-term has a significant positive impact on EFF in each region. These results emphasize that environmental regulation and technological innovation have positive or negative impacts on EFF, and both impacts may exist simultaneously, which is a perfection of the EFF theory.

High Spatial and Temporal Resolution Methane Emissions Inventory from Terrestrial Ecosystems in China, 2010–2020

Methane (CH4) is not only an important greenhouse gas next to carbon dioxide (CO2), but also an important chemically active gas. Under the background of climate warming, the measurement of CH4 emissions from terrestrial ecosystems in China is not only very important for exploring the impact of climate change on the ecological environment, but also of great significance for the in-depth study of ecosystem carbon cycling. In this study, we used the Emission-Factor Approach to estimate CH4 emissions from terrestrial ecosystems in China from 2010–2020 and explored the spatial distribution characteristics of CH4 emissions. The estimated CH4 emission inventory of terrestrial ecosystems with 0.05 spatial resolution on monthly time scale is in good agreement with the results of the latest emission inventory. It is estimated that CH4 emissions from terrestrial ecosystems in China are 19.955 Tg yr−1, including 18.61% (3.713 Tg yr−1) from vegetation, 21.47% (4.285 Tg yr−1) from wetlands and 59.92% (11.957 Tg yr−1) from paddy fields, with the largest contribution from paddy fields. The regions with high CH4 emissions from terrestrial ecosystems in China are mainly located in the central, eastern and southeastern regions of China, and show a decreasing trend from southeast to northwest. The CH4 emission from terrestrial ecosystems in China has obvious seasonal variation characteristics, with the lowest emission in January (0.248 Tg month−1) and the highest emission in August (3.602 Tg month−1). The emissions are high in summer and autumn and low in spring and winter. CH4 emissions from terrestrial ecosystems in China showed an overall upward trend from 2010–2020.

A new Malmquist-type green total factor productivity measure: An application to China

China's GDP has shown a swift rate of increase over the past forty years, and rapid economic development has also brought serious environmental problems. This research is based on green total factor productivity (GTFP) combined with the sound characteristics of the Malmquist and Luenberger indices, and by defining technical efficiency in terms of the orientation-distance function, a new model of the green Malmquist productivity index is recommended. GTFP is extended to the framework of the Malmquist index. We also break down this new Malmquist productivity index (MPI) into the three factors of efficiency changes, pure technology changes, and scale efficiency changes. The empirical application studies 30 Chinese provinces during the period between 2007 and 2017 as the tested sample. The estimated result shows that GTFP in China is on the rise, but the GTFP growth rate is decreasing, mainly due to a slowdown in the rate of technical progress. Furthermore, the empirical study also finds a significant difference among the eastern, central, and western regions of China.

Can Health Literacy in Patients with Chronic Atrophic Gastritis Improve the Ability to Identify Rumors? A Cross-sectional Study

Objective: To examine the connection between rumor recognition and health literacy in people with chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG). Methods: In this study, a cross-sectional design was employed. From May 6, 2020 to January 24, 2021, a total of 10 hospitals in each of the 5 major administrative regions of East China, North China, Central China, South China, and Northwest China were used as survey sites, and researchers were recruited to intercept CAG patients for questionnaire surveys through convenience sampling. We collected data using a self-designed questionnaire based on the functional, communicative, and critical health literacy and anti-rumor platforms. The t-test, analysis of variance, Pearson correlation analysis, and multiple stepwise linear regression analysis were all performed using SPSS 26.0. Results: A total number 602 valid samples were obtained in this study. CAG patients had a health literacy score of (51.07±11.03). For patients with CAG, the rumor recognition ability score was (8.44±2.95), with a mean correct rate of 52.8%. There were statistical differences in the ability to read rumors among patients with atrophic gastritis by place of residence (P<0.01), age (P<0.001), nation (P<0.001), marital status (P<0.05), and level of health literacy (P<0.001). Patients had a weak positive link between health literacy and rumor recognition, according to Pearson correlation analysis (r=0.236, P<0.01). After adjusting for the nation, marital status, residence, and age, multiple stepwise linear regression analysis revealed that the capacity of patients to read rumors increased with increasing levels of functional health literacy (β=0.136, P<0.001) and critical health literacy (β=0.195, P<0.001). Conclusion: This study found CAG patients had lower rumor recognition, and that critical health literacy had a stronger positive effect on their rumor recognition after adjusting for demographic correlations. The use of targeted interventions is recommended to increase critical health literacy and lessen the harmful effects of rumors.