Findings of the German COVID-19 Health Literacy school principal study

• Published in: European journal of public health 2023-10, Vol.33 (Supplement_2)
• Main Authors: Meyer, M, Dadaczynski, K, Messer, M, Okan, O
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Parallel Programme
• ISSN: 1101-1262; 1464-360X
• DOI: 10.1093/eurpub/ckad160.318

Abstract Background The education sector faced tremendous challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic, requiring adjustments to meet the needs of an unprecedented public health emergency, while also maintaining school health promotion measures. School principals are key actors to lead, drive, and implement school health promotion activities in their setting. Higher school principal health literacy is known to be a predictor for the implementation of school health promotion. The international COVID-HL school principal study was implemented to assess corona-specific health literacy of principals and investigate assocaitions with school health promotion. Methods Findings from Germany, that were generated by employing an online survey in school principals during the third infection wave from March to April 2021 in four federal states, will be discussed. Sociodemographics, health literacy, and implementation of school health promotion were measured using self-report tools. Descriptive statistics and variance analyses were conducted. Results The survey was completed by N = 2186 school principals. While 60.5% showed an adequate health literacy level, 31.4% showed problematic, and 8.1% even inadequate levels. For the subscale finding, 75.4% showed an adequate level, whereas only 50.5% demonstrated adequate levels regarding information appraisal. Welch's ANOVA indicated significant differences between the health literacy levels and the implementation rate of school health promotion and prevention measures regarding students (p