Jasminka Blažević¹, Mateo Blažević², Barbara Gilić Škugor³

¹Design, Graphics and Sustainable Civil Engineering School, Split, Croatia
²School for Civil Engineering and Land Surveying, Split, Croatia
³University of Split, Faculty of Kinesiology, 21000 Split, Croatia

Exploring the Link Between Health Literacy, Physical Literacy, and Fitness in Late Adolescence: A Gender-Stratified Cross- Sectional Study

Monten. J. Sports Sci. Med. 2027, 16(1), Ahead of Print | DOI: 10.26773/mjssm.270302

Abstract

Health literacy (HL) and physical literacy (PL) are important concepts of healthy lifestyles, but there is an evident lack of knowledge on the possible associations between HL and PL, with physical fitness (PF) as an indicator of overall health status. This study aimed to evaluate the associations between HL and PL and various indices of PF in high school adolescents. The participants were 196 high school adolescents (92 females, 17.32±1.02 years of age) who were tested on PL, HL and PF. PL was evaluated by the Physical Literacy Assessment of Youth (PLAYself ) and Canadi- an Physical Literacy Assessment questionnaire knowledge and understanding (CAPL-2-KU), while HL was evaluated by the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire 47. Apart from anthropometric/body composition indices (body height, body mass, body mass index, body fat and skeletal muscle mass), PF variables included broad jump, sit-ups, bent-arm-hang, sit-and-reach test and pacer test. Significant gender differences were observed in several PF measures and in CAPL-2-KU, with girls achieving higher CAPL-2-KU scores than boys, whereas no significant gender differences were found in HL or overall PLAYself. HL was not correlated with PF indices in the total sample or when stratified by gender. Overall PLAYself was positively correlated with all PF indices in boys (r = 0.29–0.41, p < 0.01) and with sit-ups and pacer performance in girls (r = 0.29–0.34, p < 0.01), whereas CAPL-2-KU was not significantly associated with PF. The lack of associations between HL and PF suggests that health-related knowledge alone may not translate into higher fitness levels during adolescence and that behavioral or contextual factors may contribute to this relationship. The contrasting associations observed for PLAYself and CAPL-2-KU suggest that self-perceived PL and the knowledge and understanding domain may relate differently to PF in late adolescence.

Keywords

Physical Education, High School, Students, Lifestyle, Recreation

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