Are Health Literacy and Physical Literacy Independent Concepts? A Gender-Stratified Analysis in Medical School Students from Croatia

Abstract

Health literacy (HL) and physical literacy (PL) are concepts responsible for achieving and maintaining positive health behaviors. This study aimed to investigate gender-specific associations: (i) between PL and HL; and (ii) among HL, PL, and body composition. We observed 253 students attending health-area high schools from southern Croatia (181 girls; 16.9 ± 1.4 years). HL was assessed by the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire, PL by the PLAYself questionnaire, and body composition by bioimpedance analysis. The t-test was used to assess the differences between genders, and Pearson’s correlation coefficients were calculated to establish the associations between variables. The results showed a similar level of HL (t-test = 0.2; p = 0.83) and PL (t-test = 0.01; p = 0.99) in boys and girls. Significant but small correlations were identified between HL and PL only in the girls (<10% of common variance). The body composition indices were significantly correlated with PL only in the boys (15–20% of common variance). Our research highlights the necessity of the independent evaluation of HL and PL in adolescence. Further studies evaluating other indices of health status in relation to PL and HL are warranted.

A Bibliometric Analysis of Physical Literacy Studies in Relation to Health of Children and Adolescents

“…One of the limitations we can highlight is that this study has focused on PL from a general health point of view, so a future line of research could include the bibliometric analysis of PL and health in different contexts such as public health, recreation, sports, and education [ 68 ]. It could even be interesting to study it in combination with other literacies, such as health literacy, whose linkage has been explored in recent publications [ 69 , 70 ]. This would include the analysis of more specialized documents and the increase in the amount of relevant information on the relevant topic.…”

Access to Healthcare and Health Literacy in Croatia: Empirical Investigation

“…In addition to exploring the association between health literacy and self-reported access, our paper adds to the literature by reporting, for the first time, the population-wide health literacy levels in Croatia. So far, empirical investigations into health literacy in Croatia were confined to segmented subpopulations [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. Finally, access to healthcare is rarely analyzed in the Croatian context.…”

Promoting Child Health Equity through Health Literacy

“…Krenz et al [ 5 ] developed a German Physical Literacy Assessment Tool for children in the context of health promotion and tested it with primary school students in Germany. The work of Kesic et al [ 6 ] investigated gender-specific associations between physical health literacy and generic health literacy among high school students in Croatia. Findings highlight the necessity of independent evaluations of specific and generic health literacy.…”

“…Health literacy measurement lays the key foundation to investigate child health inequities. The instruments used to measure children’s generic health literacy in this Special Issue include the 15-item Health Literacy Survey (HLS)-Child-Q15 [ 9 ], the 47-item HLS-EU-Q47 [ 6 ], the 8-item health literacy assessment tool (HLAT-8) [ 8 ], the 6-item Newest Vital Sign (NVS) [ 8 ], and the 16-item HLS-EU-Q16 [ 8 ]. Using different health literacy instruments may help explain observed health inequities across different groups of children and allow for the delivery of interventions that improve health outcomes and address health inequities.…”