Health Literacy Young Adults

Health literacy skills and use of food labels.

Health literacy young adults. People with higher self efficacy use food labels more often. Health literacy is understood as the ability to access understand appraise and apply information to make health decisions 18 and be competent regarding decisions in health related situations 19 20. Health literacy is a critical determinant of health and an emerging public health concern.

Due et al 2011. Health literacy is defined by the institute of medicine as the degree to which individuals can obtain process and understand the basic health information and services they need to make appropriate health decisions from. Of the 12 definitions table 2 two specifically targeted children younger than 12 17 32 another one included children from 3 to 18 years four definitions focused on young people at different ages between 13 and 18 years 8 18 19 33 while five articles considered health literacy over the life course without specifying a target.

Definitions of health literacy in childhood and youth. Developed a new self reporting measure mhlq for assessing mental health literacy in young people 12 14 years old meeting the need to assess mhl from a comprehensive perspective of the construct instead of focusing on a restricted number of mental disorders or specific dimensions e g. Fourth we focus on the private realm.

Health literacy is important for health outcomes in adults. Against this background young adults health literacy becomes increasingly important. A 2014 study external icon finds that young adults with poor health literacy are not likely to use food labels to select food products and are more likely to report an unhealthy diet.

Health literacy among young adults. Stone et al 2012. Abel t 1 hofmann k 2 ackermann s 2 bucher s 2 sakarya s 3.

However little is known about the health literacy of adolescents and young adults ayas. Dermota et al 2013. The purpose of this study was to provide an updated systematic review examining health literacy among ayas with and without chronic illness.