The impact of cancer health literacy on the behavior and psychology of patients’ families

Health literacy can influence preventive health behaviors related to cancer, thereby improving human quality of life and health levels. This study focuses on the cancer health literacy status of college students as family members of patients, aiming to explore its impact on the health behavior and psychological resilience of family members. This study conducted a questionnaire survey on college students from Guangzhou University, which included the Cancer Health Literacy Scale, Self Management Behavior Scale, and Related Psychological Change Scale. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed and 372 were collected, with a response rate of 93.0%. 351 valid questionnaires were collected, with an effective response rate of 87.8%. As family members of patients, college students have a high sense of health responsibility, but their self-management ability in nutrition is relatively low. The ability to cope with cancer indirectly affects the willingness of patients’ families to adopt health management behaviors through health behavior beliefs. The higher the ability to cope with cancer, the better the performance of health self-management behaviors. In addition, the overall mental health status of the patient’s family members is in the healthy range, but the positive detection rate of anxiety dimension is as high as 25.07%. The attitude towards cancer presents a contradictory feature of high natural acceptance but coexistence of death fear and avoidance tendency.