Who Is Able to Resist What Is Forbidden?—The Relationship between Health Literacy and Risk Behaviours in Secondary School Students in the Broader Social and Educational Context

Dorota Kleszczewska, Joanna Mazur, Katarzyna Porwit and Anna Kowalewska
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Dorota Kleszczewska: Institute of Mother and Child Foundation, 01-211 Warsaw, Poland
Joanna Mazur: Department of Humanization in Medicine and Sexology, Collegium Medicum, University of Zielona Gora, 65-729 Zielona Gora, Poland
Katarzyna Porwit: Centre of Migration Research, University of Warsaw, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland
Anna Kowalewska: Department of Biomedical Aspects of Development and Sexology, Faculty of Education, Warsaw University, 00-561 Warsaw, Poland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-16

Abstract: In the last Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) survey conducted in Poland in 2018, a group of 17-year-old adolescents ( n = 1663; mean age 17.63 ± 0.36 years) was included outside the international protocol. This allowed an assessment to be made of their level of health literacy (HL) using the 10-point HBSC research tool. The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between HL and risk behaviours (RB). A standardised index of RB in the last 30 days was considered as an outcome measure. This index was significantly higher in the group with low HL (0.318 ± 1.269) in comparison with the group with high HL (−0.083 ± 0.962). In a multivariate linear regression model, the strongest predictors of RB were gender, academic performance and level of regional deprivation, but the association with HL remained significant. This significant association persisted in general schools and in girls but disappeared in vocational schools and in boys. It was also shown that in rural areas, good academic performance has a less significant impact on RB if the HL level is low. The analyses led to the conclusion that when examining the relationship between HL and RB in older adolescents, it is advisable to take into account gender, the educational track and neighbourhood characteristics.

Keywords: education track; gender differences; health literacy; neighbourhood deprivation; risk behaviours (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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