Health Literacy and Personality Traits in Two Types of Family Structure-A Cross-Sectional Study in China

Abstract

Objective: The level of health literacy is one of the important factors affecting health outcomes. Family is an important place to shape personality traits, and people with different personalities will adopt different lifestyles, which will lead to variations in health outcomes. Therefore, this article aims to explore the relationship between health literacy and personality and its influencing factors in different family structures.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study with 1,406 individuals. A questionnaire was utilized to measure health literacy, personality and demographic variables, including family structure. Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) and hierarchical multiple regression analysis were used to examine the relation between health literacy and personality traits between two types of family structure.

Results: CCA showed that the canonical correlation coefficients were 0.309 (p < 0.001) and 0.347 (p < 0.001), in two-parent family and single-parent family, respectively. The openness of personality traits exhibited the highest correlation with health literacy. Compared with the remaining personality traits, openness yielded the strongest effect (β = 0.485 and β = 0.830) in two types of family structure, respectively. Education and monthly income were significantly associated with health literacy.

Conclusion: Our results support the relation between health literacy and personality traits in two types of family structure.

Keywords: family structure; health literacy; health outcomes; health promotion; personality traits.

FIGURE 1

Correlations between variables set of personality traits and variables set of health literacy and among their canonical variables in two-parent family.

FIGURE 2

Correlations between variables set of personality traits and variables set of health literacy and among their canonical variables in single-parent family.