„Health Literacy“ im Kindes- und Jugendalter: Struktur und Gegenstand eines neuen interdisziplinären Forschungsverbunds (HLCA-Forschungsverbund)

Background: Scientific research consistently confirms the relevance of health literacy (HL), e.g., utilization of preventive and curative services. Screening of the scientific literature, however, reveals that children and adolescents have poorly been included in HL research in the past. This is in contrast with the importance given to the phase of childhood and adolescence for the individual’s future health development and for sustainable health promotion and primary prevention. Objectives: The HLCA Consortium aims at contributing to the comprehensive understanding of HL in children and adolescents by developing, adjusting, implementing, and evaluating theoretical, conceptual, and methodological HL approaches. A total of nine projects focusing on basic research and applied research (mental HL, eHL) will offer a solid base to substantially contribute to the understanding of the topic. Materials and methods: A multidisciplinary approach has been adopted by the HLCA Consortium in order to develop, test, and validate methods of measurement and evaluation of HL in children and adolescents. Both quantitative and qualitative methods and materials will be utilized. Results: The HLCA Consortium will contribute to further develop the conceptional and methodological framework of HL in order to make the design of needs-based interventions for primary prevention and health promotion for children and adolescents possible. Conclusions: The HLCA Consortium aims at contributing to a comprehensive understanding of HL in children and adolescents. This paper gives an overview of the HLCA Consortium, its research projects, and the participating research institutions.