Supporting children's health literacy development: A systematised review of the literature

Despite international recognition that developing health literacy in childhood is critically important, little is known about how best to do so. This paper reports a systematised review of research literature in which six electronic databases were searched for articles that considered how children develop health literacy. Results were screened and sorted, and full-text screening was carried out by independent reviewers. Findings suggest that childhood is an optimal time to promote health literacy, that primary schools are ideal settings in which to support health literacy development, and that six core characteristics of health literacy education promote health literacy development: collaboration, contextualisation, accessibility, autonomy, reflectiveness, and con-tinuity. Consideration of these characteristics could inform the development and implementation of future health literacy interventions.