Abstract
(1) Background: With regard to children and adolescents, health literacy should only not be understood as an individual ability, but rather as dependent based on its contextual determinants. The study examines how experts define health literacy in childhood and adolescence and discusses whether they include these factors. (2) Methods: In 48 interviews with experts from 32 countries, specific questions for defining health literacy in childhood and adolescence were analyzed. Data analysis was conducted according to the summary of the qualitative content analysis. Main categories and subcategories were developed exploratively and inductively. (3) Results: No expert had an official definition of health literacy in childhood or adolescence. There were more experts who located health literacy only at the individual level alone than those who located it at both the individual and contextual levels. On the individual level, there was a focus on information processing, knowledge, behavior, and skills. At the contextual level, system responsibility, the ability of others, and relationship between age and development were the main points. (4) Conclusions: To develop an adequate method of dealing with health literacy in the target group, there must be a target group-specific consideration of the dependencies, ages, and developmental stages of that group. While this is considered as consensus in scientific discourse, it has seemingly not yet been adopted in development-related policies internationally.
Highlights
Nowadays, the meaning of the term “health literacy” seems more complex and heterogeneous than ever
The project focuses on the political actors and professionals who are involved in health policy processes and who can as such provide information on the political implementation of health literacy
For the research questions of this manuscript, we only focused on the particular question related to health literacy definitions
Summary
The meaning of the term “health literacy” seems more complex and heterogeneous than ever. Converging developments seem to understand health literacy as a two-sided concept: it pertains to the individual as well as to the structural levels [1]. Underlying this understanding is a shared responsibility between the users and actors in the health system, within which adults are the main protagonists rather than children and adolescents. With respect to children and adolescents, it may not be sufficient to capture health literacy as a two-sided concept [2] They are socialized in different environments, contexts, and settings and are exposed to visible (and invisible) dependencies that often do not allow them to make their own health-related decisions. The health system’s responsibility toward children and adolescents takes on greater significance since it must
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