Health literacy refers to skills and knowledge that enable individuals to navigate health-related information environments, to function in healthcare systems, and to practice behaviors that lead to better health outcomes. Accordingly, health literacy is one of the major preoccupations of public health scholars, policies, and strategies. However, it is a complex, multidimensional, and dynamic concept that incorporates different kinds of health-related skills and knowledge. This editorial briefly presents dimensions, levels, and domains of health literacy and discusses a growing need to acknowledge health literacy as a context-specific concept that includes various forms with context-specific conceptualizations. More specifically, it focuses on three health literacy forms that are gaining attention, namely e-health literacy, vaccine literacy, and mental health literacy. By emphasizing the importance of health literacy research for this journal and in general this editorial calls for increasing engagement in this field and invites further contributions on the topic.
Zdravstvena pismenost se nanaša na veščine in znanja, ki posameznikom omogočajo usmerjanje v informacijskih okoljih, povezanih z zdravjem, delovanje v zdravstvenih sistemih in vedenja, ki lahko vodijo v boljše zdravstvene izide. V skladu stem je zdravstvena pismenost ena glavnih zanimanj strokovnjakov, politik in strategij na področju javnega zdravja. Pri tem je pomembno izpostaviti, da je zdravstvena pismenost kompleksen, multidimenzionalen in dinamičen koncept, ki vključuje različne, z zdravjem povezane veščine in znanja. Pričujoči uvodnik na kratko predstavi dimenzije, ravni in domene zdravstvene pismenosti ter obravnava naraščajočo potrebo po priznavanju zdravstvene pismenosti kot kontekstualno specifičnega koncepta, ki vključuje različne oblike in ima specifične konceptualizacije. Uvodnik se natančneje osredotoči na tri oblike zdravstvene pismenosti, ki pridobivajo pozornost: e-zdravstvena pismenost, zdravstvena pismenost v povezavi s cepljenjem in pismenost o duševnem zdravju. S poudarjanjem pomena raziskav zdravstvene pismenosti za to znanstveno revijo in na splošno uvodnik poziva k povečanju angažiranosti na tem področju in vabi k pripravi nadaljnjih prispevkov na to temo.
Keywords: e-health literacy; health literacy; mental health literacy; vaccine literacy.
© 2022 National Institute of Public Health, Slovenia, published by Sciendo.