Health literacy meets the life-course perspective: towards a conceptual framework

This paper presents a novel conceptual framework combining the concepts of health literacy and life-course to guide public health planning and research. Health literacy is a key competence that enables individuals to navigate health-care systems and health promotion activities. The life-course persp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Global health action 2020-12, Vol.13 (1), p.1775063-1775063
Main Authors: Maindal, Helle Terkildsen, Aagaard-Hansen, Jens
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Current Debate
Health education
Health Literacy
Health planning
Health Promotion
Health risks
Humans
Public health
Social factors
Socioeconomic Factors
United States
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Summary:This paper presents a novel conceptual framework combining the concepts of health literacy and life-course to guide public health planning and research. Health literacy is a key competence that enables individuals to navigate health-care systems and health promotion activities. The life-course perspective places emphasis on how disease risk accumulates along the life trajectory from fetal life onwards, and how it can even pass from one generation to the next. Our conceptual framework illustrates how different domains of health literacy are required, and how the unequal distribution of health literacy may be influenced by social determinants at different times in the life-course. Thus, it is essential to disaggregate health literacy into sub-themes and analyse them as they unfold in a long-term life-course perspective. The suggested framework would allow these patterns to be mapped, thereby enabling public health planners to strategically target health literacy promotion programmes to the right population segments at the right time.
ISSN:1654-9716
1654-9880
DOI:10.1080/16549716.2020.1775063