Proceedings of the 3rd IPLeiria’s International Health Congress

Abstract

Health literacy, a more complex concept than knowledge, is a re-quired capacity to obtain, understand, integrate and act on health in-formation [1], in order to enhance individual and community health, which is defined by different levels, according to the autonomy and personal capacitation in decision making [2]. Medium levels of Health literacy in an adolescent population were found in a study conducted in 2013/2014, being higher in sexual and reproductive health and lower in substance use. It was also no-ticed that the higher levels of health literacy were in the area ado-lescents refer to have receipt more health information. The health literacy competence with higher scores was communication skills, and the lower scores were in the capacity to analyze factors that in-fluence health. Higher levels were also found in younger teenagers, but in a higher school level, confirming the importance of health education in these age and development stage. Adolescents seek more information in health professionals and parents, being friends more valued as a source information in older adolescents, which enhance the importance of peer education mainly in older adoles-cents [3]. As a set of competences based on knowledge, health literacy should be developed through education interventions, encom-passing the cultural and social context of individuals, since the society, culture and education system where the individual is inserted can define the way the development and enforcement of the health literacy competences [4]. The valued sources of infor-mation should be taken into account, as well as needs of informa-tion in some topics referred by adolescents in an efficient health education.