Table 1. Comparison of health literacy scores by participant characteristics.

Participant characteristics	N	%	Health literacy Score
			Mean	Std.	SE	t/F	P
Gender
Male	1550	48.7	21.13	5.90	0.15	2.847	0.004
Female	1636	51.3	20.53	6.14	0.15
Age (years)
16–22	882	27.8	22.51*	4.85	0.16	119.911	0.000
23–29	684	21.6	22.65*	5.12	0.19
30–39	610	19.3	21.74*	5.66	0.23
40–49	502	15.8	19.04†	6.28	0.28
50–59	283	8.9	16.28‡	6.46	0.38
60+	207	6.5	15.61‡	5.91	0.41
Education
Less than middle school	206	6.5	14.32*	6.12	0.43	311.262	0.000
Middle school graduate	1016	31.9	18.21†	5.85	0.18
High school graduate	1277	40.1	21.93‡	5.28	0.15
More than high school	683	21.5	24.51#	4.23	0.16
Census
Local registered	1480	46.3	21.24	6.31	0.16	3.775	0.000
Non-local registered	1718	53.7	20.43	5.78	0.14
Nationality
Han majority	3090	96.3	20.86	6.03	0.11	2.458	0.014
The minority	119	3.7	19.48	5.66	0.52
Marital status
Not married	1291	40.6	22.79*	4.82	0.13	126.336	0.000
Married	1809	57.0	19.51†	6.38	0.15
Widowed/divorced	76	2.4	18.55†	6.90	0.79
Occupation
Scientific and technical worker/teacher/doctor	298	9.2	24.04*	4.73	0.27
Student	54	1.7	24.41*	4.61	0.63
Office worker	130	4.0	21.72†	6.26	0.55	61.725	0.000
Others	509	15.8	21.61†	5.94	0.26
Factory worker/miner	979	30.4	21.21†	5.88	0.19
Hotel/restaurant waiter/waitress	853	26.5	20.54†	5.48	0.19
Retired	237	7.4	16.11‡	5.86	0.38
Farmer	162	5.0	15.68‡	5.85	0.46
Personal monthly income(RMB yuan)
<1000	327		17.36*	6.48	0.36	43.721	0.000
1000–1999	1293		21.20†	5.73	0.16
2000–2999	992		20.82†	5.76	0.18
3000–3999	338		22.58‡	5.45	0.30
>4000	185		22.85‡	5.74	0.42

Note: The Student-Newman-Keuls method was used to control the total α level. There were significant differences between *, ^†,^‡ and ^# groups, but no significant differences within each group.