Research status and progress of health literacy for children and adolescents / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Abstract@#Improving health literacy can effectively reduce the risk of health risk behaviors and adverse health outcomes in children and adolescents. Global research on health literacy of children and adolescents has been increasing in recent years. The paper reviews the existing research and proposes that there is no universal definition and connotation of health literacy for children and adolescents, most of the studies use or make some revisions on the definition of adult health literacy in child and adolescent health literacy, failing to consider developmental characteristics and unique health needs of children and adolescents. Moreover, the assessment index system and instruments are diversified, making the research findings from different studies difficult to compare, and to obtain consistent and reliable conclusions. Future endeavors are encoouraged to expand health literacy researches and to update more comprehensive and practical definition, and to develop a standardized assessment instrument that can be validated in Chinese culture.