Pre-conference: School health literacy: new challenges and solutions (HLIT)

Tuesday 11 November, 13:30 – 17:00 Helsinki time
(Starting with network lunch at 12:30)

Organised by

EUPHA Health literacy section. Co-organised by Technical University of Munich, World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Health Literacy, EuroHealthNet

Background

Health literacy is recognised as a critical determinant of health, getting traction in public health research, implementation, and policy development. In the European Region and globally, inadequate child and adolescent health literacy poses a substantial risk to overall health outcomes, disproportionately affecting the marginalised, vulnerable, and underserved. Disparities in health literacy persist both within and across nations, particularly among socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. Inadequate levels of child and adolescent health literacy are seen as a contributor to disease burden and risk, while high levels of health literacy are assumed to enable and facilitate positive health trajectories in children`s lives. Altogether, these considerations and factors underscore the urgent need for sustained, coordinated action, placing the enhancement of health literacy at the forefront of global and regional agendas for school health, and highlighting its essential role in shaping healthier futures for children and adolescents.

While traditional school health promotion efforts have often emphasised behaviour change through increasing health knowledge or addressing risk behaviours as the way forward, such approaches have frequently been found to lack effectiveness and have failed to create a long-term impact on child health behaviour and improving health outcomes. At the same time, those approaches do not consider the wider social, cultural, and economic factors contributing to behaviour, attitudes, and health inequalities. Instead, interventions within the school ecosystem and context should prioritise the development of health literacy in the form of combining individual, school-level, and systemic-level action, as this is considered essential for effective health promotion and disease prevention, as well as reducing persistent health inequities and sustaining health equity. Therefore, it is important to focus on a whole-school approach rather than reducing health literacy to an individual approach. The Health Promoting School and Health Literate School frameworks provide plenty of opportunity to do so and both of which also underscore needed advancements in teacher training, improvements in school funding assignments, the need for culturally relevant content, the development of digital and media literacy, and the necessity to address health disparities and promote health equity.

In order to successfully design, develop, and implement effective and long-lasting school health literacy initiatives, there is a necessity for integrated collaboration between the health and education sectors. Despite this recommendation, school health literacy remains insufficiently prioritised within both policy domains, particularly in the context of formal education systems. There are limits to what schools can do to promote health literacy, often also impacted by, e.g., staff shortages, time constraints, limited financial resources, overburdened schools, or a lack of health literacy in teacher training and curricula. However, contemporary evidence, leading scholars, and even educational policy makers highlight numerous opportunities within existing curricula that could serve as strategic entry points for embedding health literacy learning without placing additional burdens on schools. Among which are topics and themes such as digital literacy, media studies, health promotion, climate education, critical thinking, commercial determinants of health, information technology, social media, and pandemic preparedness.

The call for school health literacy becomes even more evident considering the new challenges and risks posed by the rapidly evolving information ecosystem of children and adolescents.

In particular, in their digital worlds, they are exposed to vast amounts of health-related content and claims, including mis- and disinformation. These circumstances have become the new normal, have already irrevocably invaded their everyday lives, and should be considered when addressing school health literacy. The prevalence of mis- and disinformation has been shown to mislead young people’s understanding of health, hinder critical thinking, and exacerbate confusion and mistrust in systems and professionals. These risks are exacerbated by the digital divide, as socio-economically disadvantaged pupils often have less access to digital resources and lack the digital skills necessary for effective information navigation and evaluation. This divide not only limits educational and health opportunities but also magnifies existing inequalities. While the education sector as a whole has yet to fully recognise health literacy as a strategic priority – despite clear evidence that healthier pupils achieve better academic outcomes, which then could contribute to achieve school and education goals – there is growing consensus outside the educational sphere that schools are uniquely positioned to equip children with the competencies needed to critically assess information and build resilience against misinformation.

To act on these priorities, the scholarly literature calls to generate school health literacy evidence to inform the development of effective behavioural and social school health strategies. Therefore, first and foremost, there is a pressing need for the establishment of a global monitoring mechanism to generate evidence and systematically track progress in school health literacy development within and across countries. Next, the creation of a comprehensive competency standards framework for health literacy is essential to define expected health literacy outcomes for pupils at various educational stages. Additionally, teacher training programmes and educational curricula must be redesigned to equip educators with the knowledge and skills necessary to foster health literacy in diverse learning environments and student populations. Importantly, all such initiatives should be tailored to reflect the cultural, social, and regional contexts in which they are implemented, ensuring that strategies are both relevant and effective for the unique needs of different world regions.

Objectives

This event builds on the Lisbon 2024 preconference of EUPHA HL and CAPH sections, following up with new developments, scientific insights, and the presentation and critical discussion of practical recommendations to improve school health literacy efforts in the wider school health promotion ecosystem in Europe and globally.

We want to provide insights on how to improve child and adolescent public health trough school health literacy action. Four keynote presentations will make the case for school health literacy by presenting: (1) a general introduction to school health literacy highlighting both successful examples and gaps, (2) an introduction to the international WHO HBSC study and how it may inform a global school health literacy survey, (3) the EU-funded Schools4Health project and how it can pave the way for a European school health agenda, and (4) the projects on school health literacy at the WHO Collaborating Center for Health Literacy. These keynotes will be preceded by an expert round table to further enlighten these topics. 

Programme

Registration

The registration fee is EUR 80. Networking lunch and refreshments are included.