Abstract
The World Health Organization (2002) considers that a balance between government, community, and individual action is necessary for health education and promotion, recognizing that non-governmental organizations, local groups, and community institutions are central in this process. This argument reinforces the idea that individuals should be empowered and encouraged to make use of accurate health-related information. This paper highlights the potential of a socio-political perspective for the development of health literacy within children and adolescents and presents two studies conducted in two daily life contexts: a community organization and a school. Both studies are based on methodological pluralism and collaborative research approaches and explore the promotion of health knowledge in formal and informal settings. Study 1 is based on a mixed methodology, using focus group discussions and questionnaires with children and youth with chronic diseases to explore the perceived impact of their participation in support associations. Study 2 presents four intensive case-studies in schools where adolescents used community profiling, a participatory research methodology, to explore health rights and access to healthcare in both a historical and prospective vision. The results enable a deeper understanding on how powerful tool ccommunity resources can be for individual and collective empowerment on health issues.
Highlights
During the last decades, the concept of primary health care has made significant progress throughout the world: today people have an inalienable right to health and health care without prejudice with regard to gender, age, religion, ethnic grouping, social class, material circumstances, political affiliation, or sexual orientation [1]
As Miller and Shinn [46] argue it is possible to learn a lot from the ordinary knowledge, skill, and craft of people – the focus group with the children was very important for gaining a full understanding of living with chronic disease, but the focus groups with members and leaders of support associations was important to understand the role of associations as non-formal health education contexts
Results from the focus groups show that children appear to be cautious in managing their relationship with their peers when it www.frontiersin.org comes to sharing their health condition – the dichotomy between the visibility and invisibility of a chronic disease, in this case diabetes, suggests that these children rethink strategies for fostering integration into groups
Summary
The concept of primary health care has made significant progress throughout the world: today people have an inalienable right to health and health care without prejudice with regard to gender, age, religion, ethnic grouping, social class, material circumstances, political affiliation, or sexual orientation [1]. The intention was to emphasize the importance of primary health care and, the promotion of health for all people [2]. Recent studies, such as Walley and colleagues [3], revisited the declaration of Alma-Ata highlighting the importance of powerful messages in the human rights field [4]. Other international conventions such as the Ottawa Charter, the Copenhagen Declaration and the Habitat Agenda corroborate the importance of (re)meeting health and health care environments as rights, stressing the need to reduce inequalities determined by social conditions [6]
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