An Introduction to Health Literacy in Education

Many health attitudes, beliefs and behaviours are formed during childhood, and childhood health literacy is a strong predictor of adult health literacy. Therefore, children should have access to education that can help support the development of their health literacy (HL). Schools provide an ideal setting to support health literacy development because they are an efficient way to reach most children and are generally equitable settings, and teachers have the pedagogical knowledge and skills to appropriately educate students, including supporting health literacy development. This chapter introduces the eight chapters within the education section of this book and summarises the key points made by these chapters.