Health literacy is an evolving concept that has gained a cross-cutting priority for delivering safe and quality healthcare in recent years. The development dates back to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) by the National Center for Education and Statistics in the USA.

Literacy is a two-fold concept, namely skill-based and task-based literacy. Task-based literacy concerns how well a person can complete essential tasks, such as reading and writing a simple text. On the flipside, skill-based literacy concerns the knowledge and abilities adults need to carry out these tasks. The abilities range from word-level basics, such as word recognition, to more advanced skills, like drawing appropriate inferences from continuous text. Thus, literacy emphasizes word pronunciation, vocabulary knowledge, and sentence or passage-level text comprehension. A literate person should be able to perform essential tasks such as word recognition and higher-level tasks like comprehending a text and making inferences from the text.

Although health literacy has been defined severally by scholars and relevant institutions, the central elements of all the definitions relate to the individual’s cognitive and social skills that enable them to obtain, process, understand, and use health information for decision-making and participation in health-related dialogue. According to experts, health literacy competency is in gradation, beginning with functional, interactive, and critical health literacy. In the context of adolescents, health literacy will mean the cognitive and social skills that aid adolescents to obtain, process, understand, and use health information for making decisions. Almost all the definitions of health literacy emphasize individuals’ cognitive and social skills as antecedents to literacy. Yet, these skills vary across individuals and over time. As people age, their cognitive ability is reduced. The variation in cognitive abilities and social skills calls for the use of simple and comprehensible language in communicating technical content to the many diverse lay people who interact with the health system. Further, differences in the socio-economic backgrounds of people could rob them of opportunities to obtain health information. Under this circumstance, guaranteed access to information, irrespective of one’s capacity is critical.

Moreover, health literacy is nuanced given the multiple contents in  health, especial when looking at health  literacy with the lens of new literacy. The healthcare context has diverse specialties. Each specialty area has unique content that may require different literacy skill set to function appropriately in that environment. Given the heterogeneity of content and differences in the individual cognitive abilities, skills, and experiences, communicating health information using simple language will help in creating a composite and primary skill needed to function appropriately in a healthcare environment. Simplified health education materials essentially constitute the foundation of health literacy programs, promoting comprehension, empowerment, and qual access to vital health information for individuals from a wide range of backgrounds.

Aims

The adolescent stage is characterized by patterns of behaviours that promote or endanger their health and that of significant others. Access to health information and education is essential for growth and development in good health. This site seeks to promote access to simplified health information and education on issues that affect adolescents’ health, ranging from sexual and reproductive health (SRH), personal hygiene, substance use, friendships, life skills opportunities and health services.  It promotes access to simplified health information useful for adolescents with varying levels of literacy, language proficiency, or cognitive abilities. The purpose is to empower them to make informed decisions, reduce health disparities in adolescents, and level the playing field for those underserved with culturally relevant health information.