Abstract
The promotion of health literacy at a young age can protect, maintain and improve health across the life course. Yet to date, a sound data basis on adolescent health literacy as a requirement for the development of strategies to promote health literacy has not been given. This paper presents a study protocol for the online survey “Health Literacy Among Adolescents” (GeKoJu) that collects the first nation-wide representative data on self-reported generic health among adolescents aged 14–17 years in Germany. The objectives of the survey are (1) to assess the distribution of generic health literacy among adolescents in Germany, (2) to identify socio-demographic and social factors in regard to health literacy and (3) to assess the association of health literacy and health-related outcomes. The cross-sectional survey was conducted from September 2019 through December 2019. A two-stage stratified cluster sampling strategy was applied. Individuals invited to participate in the survey (N = 6608) were randomly selected among German-speaking adolescents aged 14–17 years, with permanent residence in Germany. Generic health literacy is measured with the “Measurement of Health Literacy Among Adolescents-Questionnaire” (MOHLAA-Q). Data collection also covers questions on health behavior, subjective health status, personal and social resources, socio-demographic and social factors and health services use. Results of the GeKoJu survey will provide data for the development of strategies to promote generic health literacy among families, in schools, communities and health care.
Highlights
Previous studies have mostly examined health literacy among adults. These studies showed that a low health literacy level is associated with perceived difficulties in accessing, understanding, evaluating and applying health information [3]
The study is a cross-sectional study measuring generic health literacy among adolescents living in Germany
The analyses will provide evidence regarding the association between health literacy levels and health-related outcomes and social factors
Summary
3), “Health literacy is linked to literacy and entails people’s knowledge, motivation and competences to access, understand, appraise, and apply health information in order to make judgments and take decisions in everyday life concerning healthcare, disease prevention and health promotion to maintain or improve quality of life during the life course”. Previous studies have mostly examined health literacy among adults. These studies showed that a low health literacy level is associated with perceived difficulties in accessing, understanding, evaluating and applying health information [3]. Further study results point out that a lower health literacy level is associated with a riskier health behavior, a poorer general health status, higher morbidity and mortality and higher total expenditure in health systems [3,4,5,6,7,8,9].
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