What Are Adolescents Perceptions of Health Literacy
“What are Adolescents Perceptions of Health Literacy?”
A Review of the article “Early Adolescents Perceptions of Health and Health Literacy”
Carrie Virgil
Gillette College
What are Adolescents Perceptions of Health Literacy? Understanding health literacy has proven to be an important aspect of educating adolescents on the importance of their health. Health literacy is defined as, “The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions”( US Department of Health and Human Services (2010). Research by Brown, Teufal, and Birch (2007) has been done to look at how adolescents obtain information on health, how they understand health literature, and how the adolescents understanding of health literature affects their health choices in the future. The research also looked at the problem of adolescents not understanding literature on health and the problem of obtaining inaccurate information from unreliable sources.
Article Summary Brown, Teufel, and Birch (2007) obtained data from 1178 adolescents from the ages of 9-13 years. These students were in health programs of some type in 11 different schools. The girls and boys were selected from different income and ethnic backgrounds. The study looked at the following: 1. Where did the children obtain health information? 2. Who did the children obtain information from? 3. How healthy did they considered themselves? 4. Were they interested and motivated in health matters? 5. Did they understand the information they obtained? 6. Where would they go first if they had health related questions? 7. Would interest in health at a young age affect adult health choices?
The results showed that 90% of the adolescents felt they were very healthy, 25% had no interest in health education, and 75% felt they could understand health information. School and the internet were the primary
A Review of the article “Early Adolescents Perceptions of Health and Health Literacy”
Carrie Virgil
Gillette College
What are Adolescents Perceptions of Health Literacy? Understanding health literacy has proven to be an important aspect of educating adolescents on the importance of their health. Health literacy is defined as, “The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions”( US Department of Health and Human Services (2010). Research by Brown, Teufal, and Birch (2007) has been done to look at how adolescents obtain information on health, how they understand health literature, and how the adolescents understanding of health literature affects their health choices in the future. The research also looked at the problem of adolescents not understanding literature on health and the problem of obtaining inaccurate information from unreliable sources.
Article Summary Brown, Teufel, and Birch (2007) obtained data from 1178 adolescents from the ages of 9-13 years. These students were in health programs of some type in 11 different schools. The girls and boys were selected from different income and ethnic backgrounds. The study looked at the following: 1. Where did the children obtain health information? 2. Who did the children obtain information from? 3. How healthy did they considered themselves? 4. Were they interested and motivated in health matters? 5. Did they understand the information they obtained? 6. Where would they go first if they had health related questions? 7. Would interest in health at a young age affect adult health choices?
The results showed that 90% of the adolescents felt they were very healthy, 25% had no interest in health education, and 75% felt they could understand health information. School and the internet were the primary
References: Accession number: 17212754 ProQuest document ID: 215674551 Document URL: http://search.proquest.com/docview/215674551?accountid=44564