The Inhibition Effect of Health Literacy on Health Risk Under the Internet Environment: An Empirical Study of Chronic Diseases Based on CHNS Data

[Objective] To explore the impact of health literacy on health risks and its implications for national health improvement under the Internet environment. [Methods] First, we reviewed the inhibition effect of health literacy on health risk and posited the related hypotheses. Then we estimated the effect of Internet environment on health literacy by using counterfactual design and propensity score matching methods. Finally, the quantile regression approach was used to estimate the heterogeneity inhibition effect of health literacy on health risk. [Results] The results of empirical study showed that individuals exposed on Internet environment are more likely to have higher health literacy, and individuals with higher health literacy could inhibit the health risks of chronic diseases. [Limitations] Due to the constraints of secondary data, this study can’t further investigate the micro cognitive mechanism on how the health literacy can inhibit the health risk. [Conclusions] Based on the empirical results, we proposed some political implications from multiple perspectives such as information environment improvement, health literacy training, and health risk identification to facilitate the realization of the “Healthy China” national strategy. © 2019 The Author(s).