Health Literacy in School

Health Literacy in School

S. M. Yasir Arafat, Md. Anwarul Azim Majumder, Russell Kabir, Konstantinos Papadopoulos, Md. Saleh Uddin
Copyright: © 2018 |Pages: 23
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-4074-8.ch010
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Abstract

Health literacy is a core element of patient-centered healthcare. Poor health literacy is a silent epidemic across the globe as it affects every aspect of health. Schools bear an important role in increasing health literacy. Improving health literacy in adolescence is supposed to improve the later life as adolescents are used to carry their modified behavior lifelong. Various school-based interventions covering physical and mental health have been studied and found to be effective. International bodies recommend incorporation of health-related tasks into school lessons and considered that teaching the young people will be a good investment for future. Multisectoral collaborations and locally proved effective strategies are the practical challenges. This chapter aims to focus on health literacy, global scenario of health literacy, measurement tools, role of school, interventions, limitations, and challenges of health literacy.
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Background

Health literacy (HL) is an important determinant of both public health as well as individual healthcare and is considered a core element of patient centered healthcare (Altin, Finke, Kautz-Freimuth, & Stock, 2014) where patients play a greater role in gaining and utilizing information about their health (Manganello, 2008). Although the concept prevailed before the term health literacy was coined first in 1974 in discussions regarding health education (Peerson & Saunders, 2009; Sørensen et al., 2012), since then its importance has increased as it is concerned with the individual’s capacity to meet the complex health needs in this modern world (Sørensen et al., 2012). It covers the fields of health and education and builds an individual’s ability to enjoy good health throughout the life span (Ghanbari, Ramezankhani, Montazeri, & Mehrabi, 2016).

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