Health Literacy and Overweight in Adolescents

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: Overweight and Obesity

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 254

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Belgium
  • Liège, Belgium, 4000
    • University of Liege

Participation Criteria

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

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of groups / cohorts

1

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	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	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	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	Collected through a socio-demographic questionnaire	1 day (At the inclusion in the study)
Education type	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

• Sponsor: University of Liege
• Investigators: Study Director: Isabelle Bragard, Université de Liège

Study record dates

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: Body Weight; Overweight
• 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