Health literacy is an important issue in public
health today, especially as patients are taking
a greater role in obtaining information about
their health. Health literacy is commonly defined
as ‘the degree to which individuals have
the capacity to obtain, process, and understand
basic health information and services needed to
make appropriate health decisions’. While
there is a large body of literature concerning
health literacy and adults, few studies have focused
on adolescents. Adolescents may have less
interaction with the health care system and
lower health care costs than adults, but they
are increasingly involved with their health care,
especially those with chronic illness. They are
frequent users of mass media and other technology
to access health information and are
a target group for many health-related educational
interventions. Adolescents are also at
a crucial stage of development, learning skills
they will carry with them into adulthood. The
goal of this paper is to provide a summary of
issues justifying the importance of studying
health literacy as it relates to adolescents and
to provide a framework and suggestions for future
research