Examining the relationship between health literacy and individual and sociodemographic factors in secondary school students

AIM: Health literacy (HL) is an important factor in health promotion, especially regarding children and adolescents. The present study aims to identify the individual and sociodemographic factors related to secondary school students’ HL. This should make it possible to find specific strategies to improve HL. SUBJECT AND METHODS: Data on the sociodemographic background (migrant background, number of books at home and spoken language at home), self-efficacy, online reading behaviour, subjective HL (adapted version of the European Health Literacy [HLS-EU] questionnaire) and the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) of 544 Austrian secondary school students (age 11–16, 46% girls) were collected. Regression analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses regarding those factors which influence students’ subjective HL and eHL. RESULTS: Students subjective HL (M = 3.79, SD = .63) and eHL (M = 3.46, SD = .77) scores were rather high on average. Subjective HL was predicted by age, gender and online reading behaviour. However, only students’ online reading behaviour was highly significant and was found to be the most influential predictor of subjective HL. Age and online reading behaviour were also found to be highly significant predictors regarding eHL. CONCLUSION: Students’ online reading behaviour and age are important factors linked to HL. Educational activities may serve to reduce health inequalities by fostering relevant internet skills, i.e. the skills needed to facilitate effective and critical use of internet information.