Journal Article

Associations of socioeconomic and occupational characteristics with occupational health literacy among essential service workers in Guangdong, China

Chen, Huiqing, Xia, Bing, Yang, Min, Zhou, Shanyu, Wu, Junle, Huang, Manqi, Yu, Xinyang

2025

Overview

Background With China’s economic transformation, essential service workers have become a crucial workforce in tertiary industry. These workers face significant occupational health risks, making occupational health literacy (OHL) vital for their health protection. However, the specific influence of these socioeconomic and occupational characteristics on OHL among essential service workers remains largely unexplored, particularly in China’s economically developed regions. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the associations between socioeconomic and occupational characteristics and OHL among essential service workers in Guangdong, China. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among 2,640 essential service workers from the environmental sanitation, transportation, express and food delivery industries. OHL was assessed across four dimensions via the National OHL Surveillance Questionnaire. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to examine associations between socioeconomic and occupational characteristics (education level, monthly income, job tenure) with OHL, adjusting for potential confounders (sex, age, ethnic group, marital status, hukou type, enterprise scale, registration type, industry, and other socioeconomic and occupational characteristics). Results The overall OHL level was 52.8%. A higher educational level was positively associated with OHL (adjusted OR = 1.69, 95% CI: 1.19–2.41 for tertiary vs. primary education). Monthly income showed an inverse association, with higher-income workers having lower odds of adequate OHL (adjusted ORs: 0.44–0.60). Longer job tenure was negatively associated with OHL (adjusted OR = 0.36, 95% CI: 0.28–0.47 for ≥ 5 vs. <1 year). Educational level positively influenced OHL across all industries without interaction effects, while monthly income and job tenure showed significant industry-specific interactions, with job tenure negatively associated with OHL only in environmental sanitation and transportation industries. Conclusions Socioeconomic and occupational characteristics significantly influence OHL among essential service workers, with patterns varying across industries. These findings suggest the need for targeted interventions that consider educational background, working experience, and industry-specific characteristics to increase OHL among this vulnerable workforce.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Adult / Analysis / Biostatistics / China / Cross-Sectional Studies / Data collection / Economic aspects / Economic development / Education / Education level / Employment / Environmental Health / Epidemiology / Essential service workers / Female / Food / Food industry / Health aspects / Health education / Health literacy / Health Literacy - statistics & numerical data / Health risks / Humans / Income / Knowledge / Male / Marital status / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Middle Aged / Minority & ethnic groups / Monthly income / Occupational characteristics / Occupational Health / Occupational health literacy / Occupational health services / Occupations - statistics & numerical data / Personal health / Psychological aspects / Public Health / Public transportation / Questionnaires / Registration / Regression analysis / Sanitation / Secondary education / Social aspects / Socioeconomic characteristics / Socioeconomic Factors / Socioeconomics / Surveys and Questionnaires / Tenure / Transportation industry / Vaccine / Work environment / Workers / Workforce planning / Young Adult