Health Literacy, Health Information Behavior Ability and Internet Information Literacy in Primiparas: Cross-Sectional Study (Preprint)

Abstract

Lower maternal and infant health literacy is a public health issue that follows a social hierarchy,potentially imposing huge personal and societal health care burdens.However,levels of health literacy in primiparas can be unclear and a key to identifying its influencing factors.Emerging health information technologies provide new resources for primiparas to fill information gap.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the current status of maternal and infant health literacy in Chinese primiparas and to explore whether health information behavior ability and Internet information literacy are related to maternal and infant health literacy.

The maternal and infant health literacy questionnaire is a 35-item instrument designed to measure primiparas’ basic knowledge and concept of mother and child, healthy lifestyle and basic skill status. The health information behavior ability questionnaire is a 44-item instrument designed to measure five aspects of health information behaviors of Chinese primiparas.Internet information literacy questionnaire is a 23-item instrument developed to measure Information awareness, information knowledge, information ability and information ethics of Chinese primiparas.The general questionnaire is used to collect the age, place of residence, education level, occupation, income, pre-pregnancy BMI, history of poor pregnancy and birth, whether there is an unexpected pregnancy, whether to check before pregnancy, whether there is discomfort and other demographic data and obstetrics-related conditions.386 primiparas from July 2019 to February 2020 were selected as the study objects.We used multiple regression analysis to analyze the relationship between general demographic data, maternal and child health literacy, health information behavior ability and Internet information literacy.

The health literacy of Chinese primiparas is generally lower, and the health information literacy of primiparas and Internet Information Literacy were positively and significantly correlated with Maternal and Infant health literacy.A multiple regression analysis revealed that for the women during pregnancy,the obtain aspect(OR=3.46,95%CI=1.91-3.85,P =0.001) and the evaluation aspect(OR=4.82,95%CI=1.72-3.64,P=0.011 )of HIBA,the knowledge aspect (OR =3.27,95%=1.78-4.10,P=0.008)of IIL,occupation (OR=1.55,95%CI=1.4-5.4,P=0.029),education (OR=1.17,95%=24.03-37.80,P=0.001),income (OR=2.83,95%CI=14.15-40.12，P=0.007)，and smoking and drinking (OR=2.83,95%CI=14.15=40.12，P=0.028 )were significant factors influencing the health literacy of mother and infant.The health information behavior ability plays a partial intermediary role between Internet literacy and maternal and infant health literacy.

This study showed that Chinese primiparas with higher health information behavior ability and Internet information literacy were more likely to have better maternal and child health literacy. Therefore, the corresponding individuals or departments should pay sufficient attention to the information literacy of primiparas, especially for the acquisition and evaluation of health information, and the necessary Internet knowledge.