Round table: Health literacy and life skills: children and adolescents’ tools for health promotion
Authors:   Organised by: EUPHA (HP) Chair persons: Luís Saboga-Nunes - EUPHA (HP), Carine Simar - France
Published: November 2019

This round table aim is to explore transculturality of methods and instruments to assess Health Literacy (HL) and Life Skills (LS) in Childhood and Adolescence and integrate this discussion in the overall context of HL research in the European context.

HL and LS focuses on the knowledge and skills that enable people to access, understand, evaluate and apply information in order to make health decisions and promote health and well-being. While research in the past focused basically on adults, HL & LS research in children and adolescents is a novel field of study.

Specific study cases from France and Portugal will help frame the discussion.

The CrAdLiSa (developing ChildRen and ADolescents’ health Literacy) research project is focused on exploring the usability of previous tools and instruments - already implemented in other European countries - to evaluate the feasibility of their cultural adaptation and validation.

The research focuses on a public health perspective addressing qualitative, quantitative, and intervention research in context of health literacy (HL) and Life Skills (LS) and e-HL of children, adolescents, and professionals working in education, health, and social care settings.

Following the track left by Nairobi (2009) and the Shangai declarations (2016) HL has evolved into a significant public health and health promotion goal which has been included to several public health policies (eg. in Portugal, the General Health Directorate of Health (GHDH), established its first policy that focused on children and adolescents HL PNSE|2015, 8815/2015 DR, II, n° 154, 10-08-2015).

Present first time empirical findings and developments of these projects and open the floor for further discussion. On top of this, LS will be addressed from the methodological perspective. Thereby, it will shed light on the HL and LS of children and adolescents and link the current debate with contemporary public health approaches to advance the field of HL and LS in childhood and adolescence.

The round table will include 3 presentations with up to 15 minutes input followed by discussion. The first presentation is a theory-driven project about developing a conceptual LS model adaptation for children and adolescents in France. The second will introduce a HL questionnaire and its validation data from a pilot study in 4th grade (9-10 y.o.). The third presentation will explore findings of a pilot study by using a HL measure in children (9-10 y.o.) and the relationship between functional HL and subjective health.

This round table offers a forum for researchers, practitioners and policy-makers interested in HL and health promotion. By dialogue and two-way communication lively interaction and vivid discussions will be facilitated. This will allow discussing results regarding their benefit for improving HL research, practice, and policy-making, support further synergies, facilitate networking and collaboration, and support international capacity building.

Key messages

There is need for empirical health literacy and life skills research in children and adolescents. A more broad discussion needs to be developed regarding concepts, instruments and strategies for health literacy and life skills promotion.