Assessing health science students' health literacy and its association with health behaviours

Abstract

Health literacy is an aspect of growing importance since it has been recognized as an important determinant for health status (Sun et al., 2013). Health literacy represents 'the cognitive and social skills which determine the motivation and ability of individuals to gain access to, understand and use information in ways which promote and maintain good health' (Smith, Tang, & Nutbeam, 2006). According to the European Health Literacy Project (HLS-EU) it is the achievement of 'knowledge, motivation and competences to access, understand, appraise, and apply health information in order to make judgments and take decisions in everyday life concerning healthcare, disease prevention and health promotion to maintain or improve quality of life during the life course'(Sørensen et al., 2015). The comparative report on health literacy in eight European member states showed that 10.3% of participants had inadequate health literacy (Pelikan, 2012). The European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q47) was designed to measure health literacy. It is based on a conceptual framework including four information-processing dimensions (accessing, understanding, appraising and applying) within three health domains (healthcare, disease prevention and health promotion; Sørensen et al., 2012, 2013). Although there is growing interest regarding the status of health literacy in the general population, the level of health literacy measured by the HLS-EU-Q47 among health sciences students (students enrolled in health science programs including nursing, physiotherapy and occupational therapy degrees) have not been previously examined. It is especially relevant that these students, as future health professionals, have a good level of health literacy as they will educate patients, families and communities about healthcare topics. Health literacy might represent a determinant of health be

Health Literacy as a Major Contributor to Health-Promoting Behaviors among Korean Teachers

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Assessment of the adaptive potential of students of the first course of a technical university

“…As a result of the generalization of theoretical knowledge, own practical experience of research [17,18,19] and specialists using diagnostic models for assessing the health level of students, simple, affordable methods for assessing the level of health are selected, the use of which does not create any organizational and technical difficulties in the process of mass research.…”

How to make more people adopt healthy behaviors? Assessing health literacy, health promoting lifestyle and their association of community residents in Shenzhen, China

“…As early as 1974, Simonds (6) had pointed out that improving HL should be an important component of public social policy. Studies from multiple countries have shown that low HL negatively affects health, health-related and illness-related behavior, and the utilization of health care resources (7)(8)(9)(10)(11). Currently, HL is still low in many countries.…”