China's health literacy promotion work has gone through three periods, said Cui Li, vice-minister of the National Health and Family Planning Commission at a plenary session of 9th Global Conference on Health Promotion in Shanghai on Nov 24.

Cui said the first period was to explore health promotion work and outline best practices. In 2008 the Chinese government launched a health literacy promotion campaign, ratified "basic skills of Chinese health literacy" and conducted an assessment of people's health literacy.

She said period two involved promotion work. Special funds were set up for health literacy and the hotline "12320" for health services was opened. Since 2009, the central government started to provide basic health services for all, including health education.

Period three, Cui said, started from 2014, and involved more financial support from the central government.

Cui said that through such work, health literacy is gradually growing in China, the concept of health promotion is widely accepted, professional teams of health education have been established and a health literacy monitoring system has been installed.

However, challenges still remain. Cui suggested that China boost cooperation across government sectors, increase the amount of health work in schools and utilize city and community functions to increase health literacy. She also said the concept of "health for all" and "fitness for all" should be strengthened.