Defining Taiwanese children’s health literacy abilities from a health promotion perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 69-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li-Ling Liao ◽  
Chieh-Hsing Liu ◽  
Chi-Chia Cheng ◽  
Tzu-Chau Chang
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
Health Education ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Operational Definition ◽  
Children's Health ◽  
Functional Health ◽  
Children’S Health ◽  
Measurement Tool

Background: Health literacy is related to health inequality, health behaviors, and health status. Globally, health literacy has primarily focused on adults and has been based on the medical model. It is necessary to understand children’s life experiences as they relate to health; thus, this study attempted to evaluate and describe the health literacy abilities of sixth-graders in Taiwan. Methods: Interviews were conducted with 10 teachers and 11 caregivers, and focus groups were conducted with 32 children. Health literacy abilities corresponding to real-life situations were identified from life skills and the Taiwanese Curriculum Guidelines for health education. Three expert meetings were held to redefine children’s health literacy using a health promotion perspective and confirmed indicators. Results: An operational definition of three aspects of children’s health literacy and 25 abilities was proposed: 11 functional health literacy abilities (e.g. understands the connection between personal health care behaviors and health); seven interactive health literacy abilities (e.g. obtains and understands information from various channels); and seven critical health literacy abilities (e.g. analyzes the relationship between personal needs and diet choices for a balanced diet). These indicators cover 10 health education categories. Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of understanding Taiwanese children’s health literacy, and the urgency of developing an appropriate measurement tool. The definition and indicators in this study were identified using a child-centered approach focusing on children’s real-life experiences. The result serves as a solid basis for the development of the Taiwan Children’s Health Literacy Scale, and provides information for the decision-making sector on health education.

Health concepts among socially disadvantaged children in France, Germany and Switzerland

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elke Grimminger-Seidensticker ◽  
Monica Aceti ◽  
Sandrine Knobé ◽  
Gilles Vieille Marchiset
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Health Education ◽  
National Health ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Children's Health ◽  
Children’S Health ◽  
Disadvantaged Children ◽  
Socially Disadvantaged ◽  
Socially Disadvantaged Children ◽  
Health Concepts

Summary As health concepts develop through exposure to, and experience with particular contexts, and as health concepts influence health behaviour, it is important for actors in health promotion programmes to understand an individual’s health concepts. This study focussed on health concepts among socially disadvantaged children in France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland—a hitherto less researched population group. We conducted focus groups with a total of 167 children aged 7–11 years (mean=8.76 years, SD=0.68). The aim of this study was to explore if the life situation across four different countries leads to similar health concepts, and how the particular, national health discourses are reflected in the children’s health concepts. The data were analysed through a structured qualitative content analysis and revealed four categories: ‘Symbols/symptoms of health/illness’, ‘Emotionality’, ‘Healthy/unhealthy practices’, and ‘Consequences of health problems’. The children’s health concepts are linked to concrete events and objects, and they are able to think in logical sequences. However, the children’s causal argumentation is uni-dimensional; they do not cover the complexity of the development of health problems. In particular, overweight stands for illness and is exclusively the result of unhealthy practices. In their concepts, the children reflect the national health promotion programme discourses about overweight. They seem to understand the messages of health education as ‘behaving well means being healthy’; however, such a health education message initiates accusations of ‘unhealthy persons’. In consequence, challenges for sensitive health education programmes (at school) are discussed.

scholarly journals Correlation Between eHealth Literacy and Health Literacy Using the eHealth Literacy Scale and Real-Life Experiences in the Health Sector as a Proxy Measure of Functional Health Literacy: Cross-Sectional Web-Based Survey (Preprint)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pietro Del Giudice ◽  
Giulia Bravo ◽  
Marco Poletto ◽  
Anna De Odorico ◽  
Alessandro Conte ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Literacy ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Functional Health ◽  
Functional Health Literacy ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Ehealth Literacy ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Health Field

BACKGROUND The eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) is a tool for the self-assessment of perceived comfort and skills in using the internet as a source for health-related information. Although evidence exists of the reliability and construct and structural validity of the scale, there is a lack of evidence in relation to what is proposed by Norman and Skinner in their theoretical lily model of eHealth literacy; in particular it is not clear whether having a higher level of health literacy can positively influence electronic health (eHealth) literacy as measured by the eHEALS. OBJECTIVE Our study aim was to assess whether real-life experiences from studying or working in the health field, as a proxy of higher functional health literacy, correlate with self-referred eHealth literacy as measured by the eHEALS. METHODS A Web-based survey was conducted among adults living in Northeast Italy using an Italian version of the eHEALS (IT-eHEALS). In order to be able to measure the effect of higher functional health literacy on eHealth literacy, we divided our sample into two groups, respectively characterized by studying or working experience in the health sector and by lack thereof. Mean differences between eHEALS were calculated using t test and effect size evaluated using Cohen d. To ensure the validity of the IT-eHEALS, we evaluated its psychometric properties (internal consistency and dimensionality) and construct validity (by evaluating its correlation with respondents age, gender, educational attainment, self-rated health, use of internet for health-related purposes, and working status). RESULTS A total of 868 respondents that completed the IT-eHEALS were included for analysis, of which 259 had working or studying experience in the health field. Mean (SD) eHEALS total score was 28.2 (6.2) for the whole sample, with statistically significant differences (P<.001) between the two groups, with the higher health literate group scoring significantly better (31.9 (5.9) vs 26.7 (5.6), respectively), with a standardized mean difference (Cohen d) of 0.9. Interestingly, we found a weak, yet significant, correlation between eHealth literacy and respondent characteristics for the higher health literate group only, as measured by positive Spearman correlation coefficients for age (0.11, P=.001), educational attainment (0.19, P=.002) and self-rated health (0.14, P=.024). Also, in line with current literature, correlation of eHEALS score with frequency of internet use for health-related purposes was significant for both groups (0.32, P<.001 and 0.15, P<.001 for higher and lower health literacy group, respectively). In our study we could not find any difference related to gender, while a significant difference for working status was only present when considering the sample as a whole (P=.03). CONCLUSIONS Our study demonstrates a sizeable effect of higher levels of functional health literacy on the eHEALS score, corroborating what was initially proposed by Norman and Skinner in the lily model of eHealth literacy.

scholarly journals What Do Childcare Providers Know about Environmental Influences on Children’s Health? Implications for Environmental Health Literacy Efforts

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 5489
Author(s):  
Brenda D. Koester ◽  
Stephanie Sloane ◽  
Elinor M. Fujimoto ◽  
Barbara H. Fiese ◽  
Leona Yi-Fan Su
Keyword(s):  
Health Literacy ◽  
Environmental Health ◽  
Environmental Influences ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
The United States ◽  
Children's Health ◽  
Children’S Health ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Environmental Health Literacy ◽  
Childcare Providers

Children are uniquely vulnerable to toxicant exposures in their environment, which can have long-lasting impacts on their health. Childcare providers are an important population to target for environmental health literacy, as most children in the United States under five years of age spend a significant number of waking hours in non-parental care. There is an increasing body of evidence that children are exposed to toxicants in the childcare environment, and yet little is known about what childcare providers know about environmental influences on the health of children in their care. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 36 home- and center-based Illinois childcare providers to better understand their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors as they relate to environmental influences on children’s health. We found that the majority of providers had a low level of understanding of potential sources of exposure in the childcare environment, and they did not feel that environmental exposures posed a significant risk to children. Future efforts to increase environmental health literacy should focus on raising awareness and knowledge of environmental health issues for childcare providers before addressing ways that providers can reduce or prevent toxicant exposures to children in their care.

Home and school responsibilities for children’s health literacy development: the views of Finnish and Russian parents and teachers

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjorita Sormunen ◽  
Svetlana Goranskaya ◽  
Valentina Kirilina ◽  
Kirsi Bykachev ◽  
Kerttu Tossavainen
Keyword(s):  
Health Literacy ◽  
Literacy Development ◽  
Children's Health ◽  
Children’S Health ◽  
Home And School

scholarly journals Selecting Fiction Books for a Children's Health Collection by M. Tan & S. Campbell

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Tan ◽  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Health Literacy ◽  
Selection Criteria ◽  
English Language ◽  
Children's Health ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Children’S Health ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Selection Of

Books have long been recognized  resources for health literacy and healing (Fosson & Husband, 1984). Individuals with health conditions or disabilities or who are dealing with illness, disability or death among friends or loved ones, can find solace and affirmation in fictional works that depict characters coping with similar health conditions. This study asked the question “If we were to select a new collection of children’s health-related fiction in mid-2014, which books would we select and what selection criteria would we apply?”  The results of this study are a set of criteria for the selection of  current English language literary works with health-related content for the pre-kindergarten to Grade 6 (age 12) audience http://hdl.handle.net/10402/era.38842, a collection of books that are readily available to Canadian libraries - selected against these criteria http://hdl.handle.net/10402/era.38843, a special issue of the Deakin Review of Children’s Literature -  dedicated to juvenile health fiction, and book exhibits in two libraries to accompany the Deakin Review issue.

Health communication.

2021 ◽  
pp. 106-147
Author(s):  
Ruth Cross ◽  
Ivy O'Neil
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
Health Education ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Behaviour Change ◽  
Social Marketing ◽  
Technology Development ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Psychological Models

Abstract This book chapter seeks to: (i) consider models of communication and assess their relevance to health communication; (ii) suggest that health promotion must adopt participatory means of communication; (iii) critique top-down 'banking' approaches to communication and education; (iv) discuss the implications of digital technology development on health communication; (v) assert the importance of health education and consider the idea of health literacy; (vi) explore and critique social marketing; and (vii) explore and critique psychological models of behaviour change.

scholarly journals Parent involvement with children's health promotion: the Minnesota Home Team.

1988 ◽  
Vol 78 (9) ◽  
pp. 1156-1160 ◽  
Author(s):  
C L Perry ◽  
R V Luepker ◽  
D M Murray ◽  
C Kurth ◽  
R Mullis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Parent Involvement ◽  
Children's Health ◽  
Children’S Health ◽  
Home Team
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