The role of family structure in health literacy in children and adolescents: a narrative review

Abstract

Childhood and adolescence are the periods in which children shape their character and behavior. This is also the period for children to adopt good health behaviors and to gain health knowledge- to gain health literacy (HL). Several factors play an important role in this. Among them are the person’s characteristics, family and social environment, literacy in general, cultural influences, and technological advances. The present study reviews the recent scientific evidence on the role that the family structure plays in HL in children and adolescents. A literature search was performed, until July 2019, in PubMed and Scopus. Appropriate keywords, related to HL and family structure, were used. Titles and abstracts were screened independently, and full-text manuscripts meeting inclusion criteria were extracted. Ten studies were included in this literature review. Several aspects of family structure (e.g., marital status, members of family, parental educational level, etc.) seemed to play a positive role in children’s HL status in the sense that children improve their HL when raised in families whose members have better HL. Although there is good evidence that HL positively affects children’s and adolescents’ health behavior, the role of family structure in children’s HL has not been well studied and understood.