Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Apr 2;19(4):e0301055.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301055. eCollection 2024.

Associations between Polish school principals' health literacy and implementation of the Health Promoting School approach during the COVID-19 pandemic

Karina Leksy  1 , Grzegorz Gawron  2 , Rafaela Rosário  3   4
Affiliations

Associations between Polish school principals' health literacy and implementation of the Health Promoting School approach during the COVID-19 pandemic

Karina Leksy et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic has contributed to increasing the responsibility of school principals for the health of all school community members. Moreover, evidence confirms the significant role of school principals' health literacy (HL) for health promotion in schools. Therefore, the presented study aims to evaluate the associations between Polish school principals HL and the implementation of the Health Promoting School (HPS) approach in Polish schools. The present study was conducted as part of an international survey on the global COVID-HL network (www.covid-hl.eu) between June 2021 and December 2021. Three subscales of the HPS were considered and an exploratory analysis were used in this study. Associations between the median split of each subscale of HPS (outcome) and health literacy (predictor) were performed using logistic regression. Research results showed that the highest level of HPS implementation was directed at pupils. Principals perceived themselves as having the highest HL on the 'accessibility' subscale and these respondents had significantly higher odds of implementing learning opportunities for students. The study suggests that principals with adequate HL may be more likely to effectively implement HPS strategies in schools. This research could provide insights into the complex interplay between HL and the HPS approach and inform the development of more effective strategies for promoting health and HL in schools.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. The structure of the research sample.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. World Health Organization. Promoting health: Guide to national implementation of the Shanghai Declaration. Promoting health: guide to national implementation of the Shanghai declaration (who.int)
    1. Karačić J, Dondio P, Buljan I, et al.. Languages for different health information readers: multitrait-multimethod content analysis of Cochrane systematic reviews textual summary formats. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2019; 19(75). doi: 10.1186/s12874-019-0716-x - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chong YY, Cheng HY, Chan HYL, Chien WT, Wong SYS. COVID-19 pandemic, infodemic and the role of eHealth literacy. International Journal of Nursing Studies. 2020; 108:103644. doi: 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2020.103644 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Patil U, Kostareva U, Hadley M, Manganello JA, Okan O, Dadaczynski K, et al.. Health Literacy, Digital Health Literacy, and COVID-19 Pandemic Attitudes and Behaviors in U.S. College Students: Implications for Interventions. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health. 2021; 18:3301. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18063301 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sentell T, Zhang W, Davis J. et al.. The Influence of Community and Individual Health Literacy on Self-Reported Health Status. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2014; 29:298–304. doi: 10.1007/s11606-013-2638-3 - DOI - PMC - PubMed