Health literacy and increasing level of health knowledge: Ethnographic analysis of the role of school children / young people in the development of health literacy in families

Abstract Background The contribution of school children and young people to the development of health literacy (HL) within families is little studied in Cameroon, where the majority of parents have low level of literacy skills. Also, they are the most exposed to the risks of poor health status (OMS 2019), because they experience enormous difficulties in terms of ability to seek and access health information, understand, interpret, evaluate it critically, and to use it in a way that promotes health. While it is known that school children and young people bring information into their families that can improve their parents' quality of life and health knowledge, they are rarely involved in actions of development and promotion of health literacy. Methods This study combines a quantitative approach apprehending the contribution of Cameroonians school children and young people to the promotion of HL within families, as regards the methods and means used, and a qualitative design research targeting the experience of this contribution. The study concerned 150 families with school children and young people attending primary and secondary school. Results The results show the specific actions, means and practical methods that school children and young people use to develop and promote HL in their families. Also, the results indicate that school children and youth help parents to increase their level of health knowledge, and to improve their level of HL skills, while reducing social inequalities in health. Conclusions The study suggests a recognition, at the level of health policies, of the importance of involving school children and young people in the development of HL in families exposed to literacy without schooling; the need to lay special emphasis in schools on knowledge related to HL, in order to better equip school children with useful skills beneficial to them and their families.