Health Literacy: Improving Health Care Knowledge
Health literacy is an individual’s ability to seek, understand, evaluate, and use health information to make informed decisions regarding their own and their family’s health. In the context of modern society facing various health challenges, health literacy becomes increasingly crucial. Low levels of health literacy are often correlated with unhealthy health behaviors, such as smoking, consuming unhealthy foods, and lack of physical activity. Therefore, increasing health literacy is an important effort to create a healthier and more productive society.
The fast and instant life of modern teenagers and the lack of physical activity have increased the percentage of risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. In fact, NCDs at a young age can cause serious complications later in life and reduce the quality of life. Therefore, increasing health literacy is very crucial to equip teenagers with the knowledge and skills needed to prevent NCDs. To improve adolescent health literacy, various strategies are needed, including health education in schools, attractive health campaigns, utilization of technology, and empowerment of health-conscious communities.
Good health literacy will equip adolescents with sufficient knowledge about NCD risk factors, early signs of disease, and effective prevention methods. They will be able to understand that a healthy diet, regular physical activity, and good stress management are the keys to maintaining health. In addition, health literacy will also encourage adolescents to make smarter decisions related to their lifestyle. For example, choosing nutritious foods, avoiding smoking and drinking alcohol, and maintaining ideal body weight.
Social and cultural environments also play a significant role in shaping adolescent health behavior. Peers, family, and mass media are often strong sources of influence. If the surrounding environment supports a healthy lifestyle, then adolescents will be more motivated to adopt healthy behavior. Conversely, if the surrounding environment emphasizes an unhealthy lifestyle, then adolescents will tend to follow the trend. Therefore, efforts to improve health literacy must involve all components of society, including families, schools, communities and the government.