Health Literacy and Overweight in Adolescents

March 29, 2018 updated by: Isabelle Bragard, University of Liege

The Association of Adolescents' Interactive and Critical Health Literacy With Their Overweight: a Study in a Medium Urban City in Belgium

Obesity in children and adolescents has become a major public health problem in recent years. In Belgium, 20% of people aged between 2 and 17 are overweight and 7% suffer from obesity. While studies often associate this overweight with socio-economic level, other factors, such as health literacy (HL), may also play a role. Among adolescents, some studies have shown an association between the level of HL and the Body Mass Index (BMI). Our study aims to investigate the association between HL of adolescents and their BMI.

This is a cross-sectional survey among 9 high schools in a medium city of Belgium, including 254 high school students aged between 12-17 years. Health literacy was assessed by the Health Literacy Measure for Adolescents (HELMA). Student's age, sex, weight, size and parental socio-economic status are gathered in the medical file during the medical examination organized by the schools after obtaining the informed consent of the students and their parents.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

254

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

      • Liège, Belgium, 4000
        • University of Liege

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Adolescents studying in 2nd or 4th year in one of the participating secondary school. Students in those years receive a medical examination, which facilitate the collect of data and made us chose to limit the participation to these 2 years.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Studying in one of the participating school
  • Being in 2nd or 4th year
  • Parental consent to participate

Exclusion Criteria:

  • None

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Observational Models: Cohort
  • Time Perspectives: Cross-Sectional

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Adolescents
Adolescents in 2nd or 4th year in secondary school, from 9 different schools in Liège, Belgium.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Health Literacy
Time Frame: 1 day (At the inclusion in the study)
The degree to which individuals can obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. It also includes the cognitive and social skills which determine the motivation and ability of individuals to gain access to, understand and use information in ways which promote and maintain good health. It is measured by the Health Literacy Measure for Adolescents (HELMA) (Ghanbari et al., 2016), which is composed of 44 items. Health literacy was categorized into 4 categories based on the score to the questionnaire: excellent, sufficient, problematic and inadequate.
1 day (At the inclusion in the study)
Body Mass Index
Time Frame: 1 day (At the inclusion in the study)
Calculated with the standard formula (weight/height²) and categorized into 4 categories (underweight, normal, overweight, obesity) according to the PNNS and IOTF-25 and -30 curves.
1 day (At the inclusion in the study)
Parents' socio-economic status
Time Frame: 1 day (At the inclusion in the study)
We collected the profession of the parents' through the adolescent's medical file, and categorized them into 4 categories: worker, employee, independent, unemployed.
1 day (At the inclusion in the study)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Language spoken at home
Time Frame: 1 day (At the inclusion in the study)
Collected through a socio-demographic questionnaire
1 day (At the inclusion in the study)
Education type
Time Frame: 1 day (At the inclusion in the study)
General eduction versus other (differentiated, professional, transition, qualification). Collected through a socio-demographic questionnaire
1 day (At the inclusion in the study)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Investigators

  • Study Director: Isabelle Bragard, Université de Liège

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

January 1, 2017

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2017

Study Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2017

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 20, 2018

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 27, 2018

First Posted (Actual)

March 29, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 2, 2018

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 29, 2018

Last Verified

March 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • HL-ado-obésité

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

Undecided

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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