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Health literacy as a social practice: Social and empirical dimensions of knowledge on health and healthcare

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  • Samerski, Silja

Abstract

Health literacy has become a hot topic in health research and public health promotion. Most definitions specify health literacy as an individual cognitive skill, and surveys such as the EU-HLS which ask people to self-rate their decision-making capacity in the health system, grade a majority of the population as having an inadequate health literacy. Inspired by a praxeological understanding of knowledge and based on an empirical study on welfare bricolage in superdiverse urban neighborhoods, this paper explores health literacy ethnographically and highlights people's knowledge, creative practices and experiences concerning health and healthcare. It draws on 42 semi-structured interviews conducted with a highly diverse sample of residents in Bremen, Germany, between September 2015 and April 2017. The interviews were analyzed with the help of collaborative systematic thematic analysis. The findings question the individualistic and rationalistic bias of conventional approaches to health literacy and suggest that health literacy as a social practice is situational, multidimensional – comprised of different sources and forms of knowledge – and co-produced in social relations. This reformulation of the concept suggests that future research on health literacy should adopt a resource-oriented approach and embrace the rich variety of health knowledge practices.

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  • Samerski, Silja, 2019. "Health literacy as a social practice: Social and empirical dimensions of knowledge on health and healthcare," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 1-8.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:226:y:2019:i:c:p:1-8
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.02.024
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Berens, Eva-Maria & Klinger, Julia & Carol, Sarah & Schaeffer, Doris, 2022. "Differences in health literacy domains among migrants and their descendants in Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 10, pages 1-14.
    3. Veltkamp, Gerlieke & Karasaki, Mutsumi & Bröer, Christian, 2020. "Family health competence: Attachment, detachment and health practices in the early years of parenthood," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    4. Hicks, Alison, 2022. "The missing link: Towards an integrated health and information literacy research agenda," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    5. Siti Nur Hidayah Abd-Rahim & Mohamed-Syarif Mohamed-Yassin & Suraya Abdul-Razak & Mohamad Rodi Isa & Noorhida Baharudin, 2021. "The Prevalence of Limited Health Literacy and Its Associated Factors among Elderly Patients Attending an Urban Academic Primary Care Clinic in Malaysia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-15, August.
    6. Catherine L. Jenkins & Susie Sykes & Jane Wills, 2022. "Public Libraries as Supportive Environments for Children’s Development of Critical Health Literacy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-14, September.
    7. Hou, Bingdong & Wu, Jingwen & Mi, Zhifu & Ma, Chunbo & Shi, Xunpeng & Liao, Hua, 2022. "Cooking fuel types and the health effects: A field study in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).

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