The mediating association of food safety awareness between digital literacy and health status among Chinese rural residents: A cross-sectional study.

Abstract

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the potential association between digital literacy, food safety awareness, and health status among Chinese rural residents. The data used in this study was derived from a large-scale, nationally representative survey data-2020 China Rural Revitalization Survey (CRRS), conducted by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The findings showed that higher digital literacy was associated with better self-rated health level (the marginal effects of feeling very poor, poor, fair, good, and very good were - 0.005, -0.011, -0.009, 0.009 and 0.016, respectively) and lower risk of suffering from chronic diseases (OR = 0.885, P < 0.001). Heterogeneity analysis disclosed that this kind of positive association primarily focused on younger rural residents (aged 16-59 years) and those living in central and western areas. Mechanism analysis indicated that food safety awareness partially mediated the relationship between digital literacy and health outcomes. Higher digital literacy was positively associated with individuals' food safety awareness, which was related to better self-rated health level and a lower risk of chronic diseases. The present findings highlight the benefits of digital literacy and food safety awareness in enhancing rural residents' well-beings. Measures are supposed to be explored to strengthen the regulation of food safety information dissemination via online media and ensuring the accuracy of food safety knowledge, so as to mitigate urban-rural health disparities and promote the overall health level of rural residents.