Adolescents’ meaning and implications of Health and Health Literacy

Abstract Introduction Understand how concepts are integrated, what they mean and how they influence action, is a symbiotic movement between social representations, society achievements and personal ease in terms of interaction with the “other”. Little is known about adolescents’ concepts development like “health” and “health literacy”. The aim of this presentation is to share a show case on how adolescents incorporate and reflect into their social practices the socialization process of concepts development and how this influence their attitudes towards sustainability. Methods A population cross-sectional study included (n = 1009)) children enrolled in the 7th and 10th grade in the school year 2018/2019 of six schools in Ponta Delgada, Azores. Several indicators like anthropometric data, water intake, HL levels (using the HLS-EU-PT questionnaire) were collected with the CrAdLiSa online self-administered questionnaire. Also qualitative data was collected regarding the meaning of the concepts of Health and Health Literacy. Results Health is defined as Good functioning of the body (5.5%); Absence of disease (7.5%); State at a moment (9.5%); Adopting a healthy lifestyle (11.5%); Well-being (physical, psychological, social) (32.3%); A Resource / Asset to be preserved (33.7%); Health Literacy is defined as Knowing how to make health decisions based on information (5.7%); Set of books/documents on health (9.4%); Others (11.3%); Learning to be healthier (22.6%); Reading about health issues (22.6%); Having knowledge about health (28.3%) Conclusions Adolescents view on Health and Health Literacy reflect the society's processes of meaning making of these two categories and further interaction regarding the theoretical background and practical consequences of these social representations reflect a needed field of interaction toward a sustainable approach.