Variability in Health Literacy and Learning Preferences on Peripheral Arterial Disease Among Chinese-speaking Communities in California

BACKGROUND Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) is a leading cause of lower extremity amputation. Health literacy is essential for disease awareness, but PAD awareness remains low, particularly in minoritized populations. The goal of the presented study is to investigate the PAD awareness and media preference for health information in Chinese-speaking communities in California. METHODS Anonymous 14-question surveys in Mandarin and English was designed to gauge basic knowledge of PAD, preferred methods for obtaining health information and general media preferences were collected from health fairs in San Francisco (SF), Oakland, and Los Angeles (LA) in the Chinese-speaking communities. Associations between the above variables and demographics were compared between groups. RESULTS A total of 180 responses included 94 from SF, 57 from Oakland and 29 from LA. PAD awareness was low across all cohorts. LA and SF cohorts shared similar patterns to receive health information as they preferred radio (p = 0.021, SF 49/94 and LA 8/29) while the Oakland cohort favored video/media (p = 0.024, 18/57). SF and LA cohorts showed a stronger preference for newspapers (p = 0.471, SF 32/94 and LA 12/29) and television (p = 0.244, SF 28/94 and LA 12/29), while the Oakland cohort favored video (Oakland 20/57). CONCLUSION To our knowledge, this is the first study to survey multiple US Chinese-speaking communities to assess PAD knowledge and learning preferences. The awareness of PAD among the selected Chinese-speaking communities was dismal and preferred learning methods varied from surveyed communities. Implementing community-based health education strategies will be necessary.