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Related Concept Videos

Health Literacy01:21

Health Literacy

Health literacy is an individual's or a community's capacity to comprehend, receive, read, and use relevant healthcare information and services. The World Health Organization (WHO, 2018) defines health literacy as the cognitive and social skills that determine the ability of individuals to gain access to, understand, and use information in ways that promote and maintain good health. As a result, the WHO helps individuals manage long-term health concerns, participate in preventative programs,...
Levels of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention01:26

Levels of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention

Health promotion allows a person to control the determinants of health, resulting in an improved health status. It enhances the quality of life and reduces premature deaths. Health promotion and illness prevention programs help people make beneficial choices to reduce the risk of disease and disabilities. There are three health promotion and illness prevention levels: primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention.
In primary prevention, actions taken before disease onset prevent the disease from...
Concepts of Health and Illness01:29

Concepts of Health and Illness

Health is a condition of the body, mind, and spirit where an individual remains free from illness. Similarly, wellness is an active state, including living a lifestyle that promotes physical, mental, and emotional health. Physical health is critical for the overall well-being and can be affected by lifestyle, activity level, diet, and behavior. The highest attainable standard of health is a fundamental and universal human right. Consider Lisa, a fifteen-year-old born with congenital...
Models of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention II01:18

Models of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention II

The person's health status fluctuates continually, varying from being in good health to becoming ill and returning to being healthy. To understand the concept of illness prevention, there are two models. First, the health-illness continuum model is a graphic representation of an individual's wellness. It states that a person is considered healthy in the absence of physical disease and the presence of good emotional health.
The agent-host-environment model states that disease results from...
Models of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention I01:25

Models of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention I

A model is a theoretical way to understand a concept or an idea. Models can overcome barriers to health regardless of diverse economic and cultural backgrounds. In addition, models make the task easier by providing different ways to approach complex issues. There are two major health promotion models: the health belief model and the health promotion model.
The health belief model (HBM) attempts to predict health-related behavior in specific belief patterns. According to the HBM, a person's...
Dimensions of Health and Illness01:21

Dimensions of Health and Illness

The factors influencing the health-illness continuum can be internal or external and may or may not be under conscious control. They are related to the following eight human dimensions, and each dimension is interrelated to one other.

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Universal Screening for Prevention of Reading, Writing, and Math Disabilities in Spanish
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Published on: July 18, 2020

Public health literacy defined.

Darcy A Freedman1, Kimberly D Bess, Holly A Tucker

  • 1College of Social Work, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA. darcy.freedman@sc.edu

American Journal of Preventive Medicine
|April 14, 2009
PubMed
Summary

Public health literacy is defined as the ability of individuals and groups to understand and act on information for community health decisions. This concept expands on individual health literacy by considering social and systemic factors impacting well-being.

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Area of Science:

  • Public Health
  • Health Literacy Studies
  • Social Determinants of Health

Background:

  • Health literacy traditionally focuses on individual-level skills.
  • Emerging factors like climate change and poverty necessitate a broader understanding of public health influences.
  • A comprehensive definition of public health literacy is currently lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To address the gap in the articulation of public health literacy.
  • To propose a new, broad definition of public health literacy.
  • To outline dimensions and competencies associated with public health literacy.

Main Methods:

  • An inductive analytic process was employed by a multidisciplinary research team in 2007.
  • Two expert-panel sessions were convened to establish consensual validity.
  • The emergent definition was refined based on expert feedback.

Main Results:

  • Public health literacy is defined as the degree to which individuals and groups can obtain, process, understand, evaluate, and act on information for community-benefiting public health decisions.
  • Three dimensions are proposed: conceptual foundations, critical skills, and civic orientation.
  • Public health literacy is distinct from, yet complementary to, individual health literacy.

Conclusions:

  • The proposed definition and dimensions offer a more comprehensive model of health literacy.
  • Further research and action are needed to increase public health literacy levels.
  • Understanding public health literacy is crucial for addressing complex societal factors affecting health.