Health literacy among young people in Sweden : Qualitative study of the school-based health education

Abstract: The basic components of the health literacy are ability to get access to the health-related informationand understand it. For the young people the most appropriate source of information, including abouthealth, is school. Studies on health education showed that there are some problematic issues in thehealth education in the schools in Sweden which result in non-application of the knowledge by thestudents.Thus, the aim of this study was to explore and analyze school-based health education in Sweden fromthe youth perspective. The purpose of the study was to indicate the best practices of health educationwithin schools in Sweden and reveal the most problematic fields and gaps in it from the point of viewof the youth.Qualitative research was conducted for exploring the research problem. Therefor semi-structuredinterviews were held with young people aged 18-25 having studied in the schools in Sweden. The datawas analyzed within social learning theory with application of thematic analysis methodology. Besides,literature and previous researches review has been conducted as a background study.In the result of this research it was revealed that although young people are satisfied with the resultsof the health classes and show trust to the school as a source of information, some information lacksin the health education, e.g. mental health education. Besides, some issues have been noticed as to theschool environment around health education which can impede application of the health knowledge.