Association between health literacy and unhealthy diet behaviors among junior high school students in three areas

Objective To analyze the relationship between health literacy and unhealthy diet behaviors among junior high school students, and to provide scientific evidence for strategies development of adolescent healthy diet behaviors and physique.Methods A total of 2 565 students from 16 junior high schools selected from Beijing, Guangdong and Jilin Province by multi-stage cluster sampling method were investigated for their health literacy and diet behavior (choosy in food/dietary bias, eating westernstyle fast food).Results The average score of middle schools students' health literacy in Beijing, Guangdong, Jilin Province was (72.45±8.99), and the proportion of having basic health literacy among junior high students was 19.5%, 10.0%, 26.2% in Beijing, Guangdong, Jilin Province.Incidence of preference for food was 34.1%, eating western fast food was 42.9%.Binary Logistic analysis showed that lack of health literacy and inadequate health literacy would increase the risk of preference for food (OR = 2.022, 95%CI = 1.598-2.559; OR = 3.614, 95% CI = 2.472-5.080) and eating western fast food (OR = 1.494, 95% CI = 1.205-1.853; OR =3.614, 95%CI = 2.472-5.080).Conclusion The possess of health literacy may decrease the incidence of preference for food and eating western fast food, the improvement of health literacy should be emphasized in the design of adolescent diet behaviors improvement.