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Making a Case for “Education for Health Literacy”: An International Perspective

In many countries, health literacy research, practice, and policy have been moving away from a focus only on medical care and health-care settings to a much broader conceptualization. In this broader perspective, health literacy can be obtained and used across many other settings (e.g., school, home...

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Autores principales: Vamos, Sandra, Okan, Orkan, Sentell, Tetine, Rootman, Irving
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7068467/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32102271
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17041436
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author Vamos, Sandra
Okan, Orkan
Sentell, Tetine
Rootman, Irving
author_facet Vamos, Sandra
Okan, Orkan
Sentell, Tetine
Rootman, Irving
author_sort Vamos, Sandra
collection PubMed
description In many countries, health literacy research, practice, and policy have been moving away from a focus only on medical care and health-care settings to a much broader conceptualization. In this broader perspective, health literacy can be obtained and used across many other settings (e.g., school, home, workplaces, government) towards achieving health and wellness goals across the life-course for individuals, families, and communities. The education sector is a critical domain towards these achievements and education for health literacy is a fundamental process and outcome. This can help towards important public health goals, including critical health literacy, as oriented not only towards individual actions, but also towards supporting effective social and political action. This Perspective Article describes the importance and utility of the education for health literacy perspective, which, follows a view that health literacy is a key outcome of health education from which improved population health, health promotion and disease prevention could be achieved across diverse contexts. We first describe different educational paradigms to address health literacy and clarify the education for health literacy perspective as a supportive, instructional and capacity-building global resource across the life-course. Then, using specific examples from Canada, America, and Germany, we provide a snapshot of the diverse ways in which the education for health literacy perspective can be found in national policies. These include broad national goals and standards (Germany and Canada) and major health care reform (America). We next consider the tensions and gaps that can arise in the translation and implementation of these policies relative to the ideal education for health literacy perspective, especially related to equity. These include the need for funding, goals of the educational system, and limited evaluation of policy in practice. Finally, we highlight strategic opportunities to achieve education for health literacy and equity especially offering examples from innovative practice in Canada across the lifespan.
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spelling pubmed-70684672020-03-19 Making a Case for “Education for Health Literacy”: An International Perspective Vamos, Sandra Okan, Orkan Sentell, Tetine Rootman, Irving Int J Environ Res Public Health Perspective In many countries, health literacy research, practice, and policy have been moving away from a focus only on medical care and health-care settings to a much broader conceptualization. In this broader perspective, health literacy can be obtained and used across many other settings (e.g., school, home, workplaces, government) towards achieving health and wellness goals across the life-course for individuals, families, and communities. The education sector is a critical domain towards these achievements and education for health literacy is a fundamental process and outcome. This can help towards important public health goals, including critical health literacy, as oriented not only towards individual actions, but also towards supporting effective social and political action. This Perspective Article describes the importance and utility of the education for health literacy perspective, which, follows a view that health literacy is a key outcome of health education from which improved population health, health promotion and disease prevention could be achieved across diverse contexts. We first describe different educational paradigms to address health literacy and clarify the education for health literacy perspective as a supportive, instructional and capacity-building global resource across the life-course. Then, using specific examples from Canada, America, and Germany, we provide a snapshot of the diverse ways in which the education for health literacy perspective can be found in national policies. These include broad national goals and standards (Germany and Canada) and major health care reform (America). We next consider the tensions and gaps that can arise in the translation and implementation of these policies relative to the ideal education for health literacy perspective, especially related to equity. These include the need for funding, goals of the educational system, and limited evaluation of policy in practice. Finally, we highlight strategic opportunities to achieve education for health literacy and equity especially offering examples from innovative practice in Canada across the lifespan. MDPI 2020-02-24 2020-02 /pmc/articles/PMC7068467/ /pubmed/32102271 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17041436 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Perspective
Vamos, Sandra
Okan, Orkan
Sentell, Tetine
Rootman, Irving
Making a Case for “Education for Health Literacy”: An International Perspective
title Making a Case for “Education for Health Literacy”: An International Perspective
title_full Making a Case for “Education for Health Literacy”: An International Perspective
title_fullStr Making a Case for “Education for Health Literacy”: An International Perspective
title_full_unstemmed Making a Case for “Education for Health Literacy”: An International Perspective
title_short Making a Case for “Education for Health Literacy”: An International Perspective
title_sort making a case for “education for health literacy”: an international perspective
topic Perspective
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7068467/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32102271
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17041436
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