Abstract:

Health literacy is one of the key factors that affect health and the onset and development of many diseases, particularly after the fading Covid-19 pandemic. The objective of international as well as national strategic documents of the World Health Organization (WHO) is to increase the level of health literacy among the population. One of the core intervention areas is in education. Teachers’ level of health literacy affects its development among their students. Body Mass Index (BMI) is most frequently used to assess the optimum body mass in relation to the health risks. The research carried out in 2022 related to the sample of 130 female students of the Faculty of Education, Palacký University Olomouc, aged 25.5 ±8.5 years and BMI 22.7 ±5.2 kg/m2. The aim of our study was to evaluate the BMI based on the health literacy level. We used research device recommended by the World Health Organization and provided by the National Institute of Public Health in Prague. The research was carried out by using the health literacy questionnaire tailored to the size of healthcare, disease prevention, health promotion and general level of health literacy. A total of 10.7% of students showed an excellent level, 26.2% a satisfactory level and 35.4% a problematic level of general health literacy. Students achieved the highest level of the health literacy. The differences between levels of health literacy for the BMI categories were statistically insignificant for the group we investigated.

Keywords:

Education, healthcare, disease prevention, health promotion, Body Mass Index.