Health literacy and adolescents: a framework and agenda for future research

Health literacy is an important issue in public health today, especially as patients are taking a greater role in obtaining information about their health. Health literacy is commonly defined as 'the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inHealth education research Vol. 23; no. 5; pp. 840 - 847
Main Author Manganello, Jennifer A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Oxford University Press 01.10.2008
Oxford Publishing Limited (England)
Subjects
Access to Information
Adolescent
Adolescent Behavior
Adolescents
Behavior Patterns
Chronic Illness
Consumer Health Information
Decision Making
Educational programmes
Grade 10
Health Care Costs
Health Education
Health Education - methods
Health information
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Health Promotion
Health technology assessment
High School Graduates
Humans
Information Seeking
Intervention
Literacy
Mass Media
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Patients
Public Health
Role
Thinking Skills
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Summary:Health literacy is an important issue in public health today, especially as patients are taking a greater role in obtaining information about their health. Health literacy is commonly defined as 'the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions'. While there is a large body of literature concerning health literacy and adults, few studies have focused on adolescents. Adolescents may have less interaction with the health care system and lower health care costs than adults, but they are increasingly involved with their health care, especially those with chronic illness. They are frequent users of mass media and other technology to access health information and are a target group for many health-related educational interventions. Adolescents are also at a crucial stage of development, learning skills they will carry with them into adulthood. The goal of this paper is to provide a summary of issues justifying the importance of studying health literacy as it relates to adolescents and to provide a framework and suggestions for future research.
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ISSN:0268-1153
1465-3648
DOI:10.1093/her/cym069