Efectivamente, aunque el nivel de instrucción está relacionado con la alfabetización en salud. 

Esperamos publicar en breve nuestro estudio en mujeres embarazadas. 

Hi Jose,

In my mind - yes - as long as health education has 'education' in it. With regards to health professional groups, I have long being critical of their 'health education' role. Instead, if it is simple, opportunistic, 'one-off' and brief 'information-giving' - then this is not education. There has to be a change of value, belief and attitude systems for education to take place and health education programmes have to be well planned, long-term, well resourced, sustainable and well evaluated for them to have any reasonable chance of success - and, as you state, and reasonable chance of empowering self-management. The very same is so for health literacy. It involves health education as a core activity - and health literacy is not just about making health information easier to understand. It is also all the things above. 

For me - Nutbeam's (2000) seminal article on health literacy (let's call it health education as well) encapsulates where health education and health literacy can be most effectively related - and that is where they transition from behavioural change alone to social action. 

Jose, you are correct. They are both a means about empowering individuals to self-manage their health and to make decisions  about health and well-being. In effect, they are both part of achieving health promotion outcomes. Health literacy means many thins to many people and I am still confused by all the fuss-it offers nothing new that is not already in the literature-merely in different a wrapping! The reasons for this speak volumes about how we function as professionals.

 Totally agree we are trying to sell innovation when it is really a change of name with the same objective of informing and, if possible, to educate to change the lifestyle that values Health and not disease.

Health literacy refers to skills needed to apply what is learned in health education (usually categorized as functional, interactive and critical skills). Health education builds capacity by increasing knowledge, often relying on functional literacy (reading, numeracy), and sometimes (better) also on interactive (social) skills. Health literacy builds empowerment, and makes health education (knowledge gain) empowering, when critical thinking skills are activated to enable the learner to weigh options, make a choice and transform that choice into their desired actions and outcomes.

Hi Sandra, what you describe is critical education or critical consciousness proposed by Freire in the 1960s. It is nothing new only repackage by academics largely for the purpose of publication.

Literacy shows that education and understanding have taken place. As such, literacy is a wider concept. 

These are related terms. Health education tends to be very general than Health literacy. Health literacy  can be influenced by Health education

I regard health literacy an outcome of health education.

Kind regards

Kristine

The professors and professionals who use Health Education seek to inform and train so that citizens, users and / or patients carry out healthy lifestyles. Health literacy would not only mean the above, but also train patients so that they are able to understand the importance of their lifestyle and that this implies a better use of information in relation to health-disease in order to access and use it better. the health resources and services as well as the self-care that suppose a better management of the health problems and, therefore, be able to participate in the improvement of their Well-being and Quality of Life related to Health. That is, the EPS is the tool or measure that should be used to get the patient to have cognitive and social skills in relation to Health (Health Literacy). Best regards from Studio Salmantinae

Health education can try to educate people on matters of health but this needs to be internalised to become effective health literacy. Having the knowledge does not always translate into behaviour. Health literacy should measure how much people understand and can use the health information gained through education for lifestyle and for successfully accessing health services.

When Nutbeam developed his model of health literacy (2000), he based it on the work of critical literacy theorists Freebody and Luke (1990). It is this later work that draws on the idea that meaningful literacy education is in fact about multiple literacies that includes language and context that in turn has cultural, cognition and social effects. In effect literacy is about a reading of the world using language, visual and multimedia modes (Cope & Kalantsis, 2000), therefore it is a situated practiced.

While Nutbeam’s model of health literacy has been predominately interpreted as efficacy in following the directions of health professionals it is a rather diminished interpretation of health literacy. For health literacy to be effective it must be understood as being ‘situated’ in some social context. Here social determinants of health provide some insight into why instructions for behavior change are limited. Sometimes the prescribed behavior change doesn’t makes sense or isn’t possible in some social contexts. And I also bet it is why the WHO and the EU will come up with findings that those with lower health literacy will have lower levels of overall health.

Health literacy is a pedagogical approach that can be used in health education. By thinking about how I operate in the world, how my family culture and environment influence me, and how do the decisions and expression of power by others influence me all provide an education in health. It is this education that provides me with new insights and learning about the situated nature of health enabling me to be able to ‘read’ my world in more empowered ways. Thus Nutbeam’s (2000) position is that “health literacy as a key outcome from health education” (p.259). So they are not the same but they are both important for developing and empowering around health education.

Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (Eds.). (2000). Multiliteracies: Literacy learning and the design of social futures. Psychology Press.

Freebody, P., and Luke, A. (1990). “Literacies” programs: debates and demands in cultural context. Prospect 5, 7–16.

Nutbeam, D. (2000). Health literacy as a public health goal: a challenge for contemporary health education and communication strategies into the 21st century. Health Promot. Int. 15, 259–267. doi:10.1093/heapro/15.3.259

Nutbeam's position as discussed above on HL is to me the right one to move forward with withn health promotion and PH. What is interesting is that it is not his interpretation that is dominant or leading the development of HL. It is the individual and the health system as an interpretation of HL this is dominant. But why has this happened?

Literacy is the daughter of education, when we educate about, and promote the use of healthy lifestyle, this will lead to literacy.

health literacy is the knowledge and practice of the health education.

the differences are not significant since both want to raise awareness, motivate and value the Health and, therefore, that patients, users and citizens participate actively in relation to the binomial Health-disease carrying out a healthy lifestyle and, Adequate and responsible self-care to Promote your Health and reduce the chances of having health problems.

Health education is the activity which is directed to achieve good knowledge and attitude towards health issues. In addition to improving behaviour and practice. What comes out is health literacy.

Effectively, Health Education is the activity aimed at achieving good knowledge and an attitude to value Health by improving individual behavior and the practice of carrying out a healthy lifestyle. The literacy begins by sensivilizar and motivate to put the Health promotional. Therefore, they complement each other and must be used according to the needs of the people to whom it is addressed. Best regards