What this means
Stroke, the second foremost cause of mortality globally, imposes a considerable disease burden in China. Limited health literacy and difficulties adhering to post-discharge care may be associated with poorer quality of life among stroke survivors.
A plain-English summary is on its way. Until then, this is the start of the authors' own summary.
- Who it was tested in
- People
- Kind of research
- A study
The science
- Original title
- The mediating role of out-of-hospital adherence between health literacy and quality of life in Chinese stroke survivors: a cross-sectional study.
- Authors
- Sun HJ, Cao JL, Qu JY et al.
- Journal
- Frontiers in public health
- Published
- Oct 23, 2026
- Study type
- Study · in humans
- PMID
- 42908663 ↗
Abstract
Background
Stroke, the second foremost cause of mortality globally, imposes a considerable disease burden in China. Limited health literacy and difficulties adhering to post-discharge care may be associated with poorer quality of life among stroke survivors. However, the extent to which out-of-hospital adherence statistically accounts for the association between health literacy and quality of life remains insufficiently characterized. To examine associations among health literacy, out-of-hospital adherence, and quality of life, and to assess whether out-of-hospital adherence statistically mediates the association between health literacy and quality of life in a cross-sectional sample of stroke survivors.
What they did
A cross-sectional study included 509 participants recruited through convenience sampling from four traditional Chinese medicine hospitals in Shanghai. Health literacy, out-of-hospital adherence, and stroke-specific quality of life were assessed using Chinese-language instruments. Statistical mediation was examined using PROCESS Model 4 with 5,000 bootstrap resamples.
What they found
Stroke survivors' health literacy averaged 31.40 ± 6.78 (below threshold), with analysis skills scoring lowest (5.37 ± 1.17); Health literacy was positively correlated with quality of life (r = 0.409, p < 0.001) and out-of-hospital adherence (r = 0.223, p < 0.001). Adherence was also positively correlated with quality of life (r = 0.461, p < 0.001). The standardized indirect effect through adherence was 0.087 (bootstrap 95% CI: 0.048-0.134), corresponding to approximately 21.3% of the total association in the specified model. These cross-sectional findings carry public-health-relevant implications for older adult stroke survivors, a fast-growing vulnerable subgroup amid China's population aging. Population-level targeted strategies to improve health literacy and post-discharge adherence may advance healthy aging by mitigating stroke-related health disparities among older adults, particularly for socio-economically disadvantaged subgroups including those with low educational attainment and rural residence. Further implementation research is required to translate these observational associations into community-tailored preventive interventions for aging populations.
The authors' abstract, grouped under plain headings from its own section labels.
Sun HJ, Cao JL, Qu JY et al. The mediating role of out-of-hospital adherence between health literacy and quality of life in Chinese stroke survivors: a cross-sectional study. Frontiers in public health. 2026. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2026.1917398. PMID: 42908663. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42908663/