HealthLit4Kids: Improving health literacy outcomes in an Australian setting

Affordable, scalable and sustainable programs for improving health literacy teaching and learning are essential for improving health outcomes. Primary schools provide an ideal environment for this kind of endeavour. This study summarises and evaluates the school-based program HealthLit4Kids (HL4K) in Tasmania, Australia, as one such approach, and suggests directions for wider applications.

The paper integrates and summarises HL4K program outcomes to date.

Program outcomes of current HL4K uptake are evaluated in terms of the experiences, successes, and barriers reported by the teachers, students, parents, and school leaders involved.

The adoption of HL4K by five schools gained overall positive responses from all stakeholders, through varied methods. Teachers reported improved knowledge of health literacy, an outcome endorsed by school leaders. Students responded with strong engagement and enhanced critical thinking, and parents' health literacy also increased. Improved communication between schools and parents could further enhance these positive findings. Increased opportunities for teacher professional development, as well as policy-level changes in reporting health education outcomes, are recommended.

As a co-designed, whole-of-school program, HL4K can improve health literacy teaching and learning for students, and for the communities where those students live and learn. HL4K has recently been expanded in scalable ways. Moving forward, HL4K will be hosted as an online training package for school-based facilitators, and a new social enterprise, HealthLit4Everyone, seeks to develop more services. This innovation will be delivered by local facilitators, with the potential to improve health literacy for more people, across more settings.