Table 1.

Strengths and Challenges of School-based Child Health Literacy interventions.

Strengths

Challenges

Schools are accessible to all; access to age appropriate health education exists; opportunities exist for all children to develop higher levels of health literacy; opportunities exist to develop lifelong learning skills; access exists to free health information [6] Health literacy education embedded in school curriculum; building healthy school environments using the Health Promoting Schools (HPS) Framework, promote critical health literacy [15,16,17]/> Comprehensive integrated approaches can be used that target individuals attitudes and behaviours, as well as the school environment [17]

Health literacy is not well known in the education sector; health education and promotion is not part of the school curriculum; health is not part of core goals of education [15] Predominantly targeted at 13–18 year old adolescents; hence, too late to influence health behaviours; limited program planning or measurement tools for implementation and evaluation; limited use of whole of school approaches; lack of teacher preparedness, confidence and institutional time; inadequate and limited in-service training opportunities for teachers [13] Variable implementation fidelity of health literacy programs and the original HPS framework; limited detailing of health literacy outcomes [16] Limited measurement of implementation fidelity [2,17]