Continuously improve the health literacy of the whole population

Source: People's Daily

The National Health Commission recently announced that the level of health literacy of the nation's residents has steadily increased from 8.8% in 2012 to 25.4% in 2021, completing the milestone of the Health China Initiative 2022 ahead of schedule.

According to the World Health Organization's definition, health includes physical health, mental health, good social adaptability, and moral health. Health literacy is the ability of a person to access and understand basic health information and services, and use them to make correct judgments and decisions to maintain and promote one's health. Since the 18th Party Congress, China has continued to strengthen health education to promote individuals and groups to establish health concepts, master health knowledge and develop health behaviors, so as to prevent diseases, promote health and improve the quality of life. The "Health China Action (2019-2030)" proposes 15 major actions, including health knowledge popularization actions. The 14th Five-Year National Health Plan proposes to "carry out in-depth health knowledge promotion and popularization to enhance residents' health literacy.& quot; At present, some residents still lack the knowledge and skills to maintain health, and unhealthy lifestyles are quite common, and the level of health literacy has more room for improvement. Therefore, vigorously popularizing health knowledge and continuously improving the health literacy of the whole population remains an urgent and significant task.

To enhance national health literacy, we must adhere to the public health needs as the guide. To protect people's life safety and enhance their physical health as the starting point, we must increase the supply of authoritative health science knowledge, expand the dissemination coverage of health science knowledge, and provide convenience for people to accurately inquire and obtain health science knowledge. In recent years, the people's demand and expectation for health knowledge is getting higher and higher, and they have a more active awareness of maintaining and promoting health, expecting to get more "good-looking, good-listening, good-remembering, good-using" health knowledge. Therefore, the health sector should strengthen health education and promotion in a targeted manner according to the characteristics of different groups of people, and strive to increase the supply of health science and knowledge throughout society to better meet the growing health needs of the people.

To enhance national health literacy, the quality of health science knowledge must be improved. We must occupy the main position of health communication with scientific and authoritative health knowledge, curb false health information, and purify the environment of health science knowledge dissemination. In terms of dissemination content, we should popularize scientific health concept, guide the public to correctly understand health, understand the natural laws of birth, old age, sickness and death, understand the limitations of medical technology, respect medicine and medical personnel, and jointly deal with health problems; popularize health knowledge such as reasonable diet, moderate exercise, smoking cessation and alcohol restriction, psychological balance, etc., and promote the development of a civilized, healthy and green lifestyle Popularize disease prevention, early detection, emergency The Government should also popularize the necessary skills of disease prevention, early detection, emergency rescue, timely medical treatment, rational use of drugs and emergency evacuation, and consciously maintain their own health. At the same time, we should improve the national health science expert database and resource base, build a mechanism for publishing and disseminating health science knowledge in the media, and encourage medical institutions and medical personnel to carry out health promotion and health education.

To enhance the health literacy of all people, we must adhere to the bottom line of benefiting the public. Organizations that publish and disseminate health science knowledge should reflect the principle of public welfare, improve the quality of health science columns and public service advertisements, and not give up their social responsibility for the pursuit of economic benefits. For false information that is widely spread and harmful to public health, experts should be organized in time to clarify and correct it. For example, obesity is not only a personal image problem, but also a major public health problem. For the overweight and obese population, various weight loss methods are popular in the society, such as starvation weight loss, drug weight loss, acupuncture weight loss, surgery weight loss, etc. There are various and mixed. In fact, rapid weight loss by a single means not only tends to make weight rebound, but also causes harm to human health. Therefore, the media must adhere to the primacy of public interest, spread the scientific concept of weight loss, advocate persistent diet control and exercise management, and popularize and promote a healthy lifestyle.

People's health is the foundation of a happy life. Continuously improving the health literacy of all people is an important prerequisite for improving the health of all people. We hope that the whole society will act to establish the concept of great health and health, integrate health into all policies, advocate that everyone is the first person responsible for his or her own health, and inspire the majority of residents to love health, pursue health and enjoy health, so as to lay a solid foundation for the construction of a healthy China. People's Daily (July 15, 2022, 19 edition)