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Abstract
This study validated instruments for assessing the health awareness and health literacy of adolescents and explored the related and protective factors of adolescents’ health literacy in Taiwan. A total of 1,005 representative adolescents were stratified randomly selected from Kaohsiung City, and they completed two well-structured instruments for measuring their health awareness and health literacy. First, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and internal consistency were used to examine the instruments’ validities and reliabilities. Second, chi-square test, independent t-test, and one-way analysis of variance were conducted to compare the health awareness and health literacy levels of adolescents from different backgrounds. Finally, hierarchical regression analysis was employed to identify the relations between health knowledge, attitudes toward health, and healthy behaviors and their predictors. The initial results indicated that adolescents’ means of health attitude decreased with increasing age and improvement in grades. University students’ means of attitude toward health and health literacy were significantly lower than those of junior high school students. Male adolescents’ scores for health awareness and health knowledge were significantly higher than those of their female counterparts. On the other hand, female adolescents’ means of health actions were significantly higher than those of their male counterparts’. Additionally, adolescents’ means of health knowledge and attitudes toward health had significant and adjusted predictive power on their health behaviors. This study demonstrated the importance of developing and implementing situational tests and curricula and activities related to students’ everyday lives to improve their health literacy. Finally, further discussion on methods to improve adolescents’ health actions and female adolescents’ health knowledge is warranted.