Abstract
Health literacy, defined as the ability to access, understand, and use health information,
has been identified as an international public health goal. The term nutrition literacy has emerged as a distinct form of health literacy, yet scholars continue to reflect
on constituent skills and capabilities in light of discussions regarding what it means
to be food literate and health literate. This viewpoint argues that a comprehensive
conceptualization of nutrition literacy should reflect key elements of health literacy
and food literacy constructs. Nutbeam’s tripartite model of health literacy is employed
to explore competencies that are likely to facilitate healthy food relationships.
Key Words
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessSNEB Member Login
SNEB Members, full access to the journal is a member benefit. Login via the SNEB Website to access all journal content and features.Subscribe:
Subscribe to Journal of Nutrition Education and BehaviorAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Constructing food choice decisions.Ann Behav Med. 2009; 38: S37-S46
- Health promotion glossary.Health Promot Int. 2009; 13: 349-364
- Health literacy and public health: a systematic review and integration of definitions and models.BMC Public Health. 2012; 12: 80-93
- Measuring health literacy: moving towards a health-promotion perspective.Int J Public Health. 2008; 53: 169-170
- Health literacy as a public health goal: a challenge for contemporary health education and communication strategies into the 21st century.Health Promot Int. 2000; 15: 259-267
- Health literacy: engaging in a political debate.Int J Public Health. 2009; 54: 131-132
- eHealth literacy: essential skills for consumer health in a networked world.J Med Internet Res. 2006; 8: e9
- Mental health literacy: public knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders.Br J Psychiatry. 2000; 177: 396-401
- Nutrition and health literacy: a systematic review to inform nutrition research and practice.J Acad Nutr Diet. 2012; 112: 254-265
- Use of nutrition facts panels among adults who make household food purchasing decisions.J Nutr Educ Behav. 2006; 38: 360-364
- MyPyramid.gov: assessment of literacy, cultural and linguistic factors in the USDA food pyramid web site.J Nutr Educ Behav. 2007; 39: 219-225
- Increasing nutrition literacy: testing the effectiveness of print, web site, and game modalities.J Nutr Educ Behav. 2008; 40: 3-10
- How well do Australian shoppers understand energy terms on food labels?.Public Health Nutr. 2012; 16: 409-417
- Health literacy: addressing the health and education divide.Health Promot Int. 2001; 16: 289-297
- Exploring nutrition literacy: attention to assessment and the skills clients need.Health. 2012; 4: 120-124
- Obesity prevention in the information age.J Am Med Assoc. 2008; 300: 433-435
- Understanding health literacy: an expanded model.Health Promot Int. 2005; 20: 195-203
- Development and validation of a short, consumer-oriented nutrition knowledge questionnaire.Appetite. 2011; 56: 617-620
- Exploring nutrition knowledge and the demographic variation in knowledge levels in an Australian community sample.Public Health Nutr. 2008; 11: 1365-1371
- Healthy eating, activity and obesity prevention: a qualitative study of parent and child perceptions in Australia.Health Promot Int. 2005; 20: 19-26
- Nutrition knowledge and food consumption: can nutrition knowledge change food behaviour?.Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2002; 11: S579-S585
- Nutrition literacy status and preferred nutrition communication channels among adults in the Lower Mississippi Delta.Prev Chronis Dis. 2009; 6: 1-11
- Identification of essential food skills for skill-based healthful eating programs in secondary schools.J Nutr Educ Behav. 2011; 43: 116-122
- Communicating nutrition information: usability and usefulness of the interactive menus of national fast food chain restaurants.J Commun Healthcare. 2011; 4: 187-199
- An objective measure of nutrition facts panel usage and nutrient quality of food choice.J Nutr Educ Behav. 2014; 46: 589-594
- The validation of a food label literacy questionnaire for elementary school children.J Nutr Educ Behav. 2012; 44: 262-266
- Mass media nutrition information sources and associations with fruit and vegetable consumption among adolescents.Public Health Nutr. 2010; 13: 269-275
- Exploring the borderlands between media and health: conceptualizing “critical media health literacy”.J Media Literacy Educ. 2012; 4: 136-148
- Exploring baseline food-media literacy of adults.J Media Literacy Educ. 2012; 4: 3-11
- Insight from the public on home economics and formal food literacy.Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal. 2011; 39: 415-430
- Adolescent food literacy programmes: a review of the literature.Nutrition Dietetics. 2013; 71: 158-171
- Healthy literacy, nutrition education, and food literacy.J Nutr Educ Behav. 2013; 45: 195
- Defining food literacy and its components.Appetite. 2014; 76: 50-59
- What is food literacy and does it influence what we eat: a study of Australian food experts.Queensland University of Technology, Queensland, Australia2011
- Trying to find the quickest way: employed mothers’ constructions of time for food.J Nutr Educ Behav. 2007; 39: 18-25
- Understanding critical health literacy: a concept analysis.BMC Public Health. 2013; 1: 150-160
- Improving measurement in nutrition literacy research using Rasch modelling: examining construct validity of stage-specific “critical nutrition literacy” scales.Public Health Nutr. 2014; 17: 877-883
- Using nutrition education and cooking classes in primary schools to encourage healthy eating.Journal of Student Wellbeing. 2010; 4: 43-54
- Neoliberalism and the making of food politics in California.Geoforum. 2008; 39: 1171-1183
- Dietary intake in midlife and associations with standard of living, education and nutrition literacy.N Z Med J. 2014; 127: 30-40
- Quick assessment of literacy in primary care: The Newest Vital Sign.Ann Fam Med. 2005; 3: 514-522
- Patient understanding of food labels: The role of literacy and numeracy.Am J Prev Med. 2006; 31: 391-398
- Establishing content validity for the nutrition literacy assessment instrument.Prev Chronic Dis. 2013; 10: e109-e119
Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 27, 2015
Accepted:
April 17,
2015
Footnotes
Conflict of Interest Disclosure: The author’s conflict of interest disclosures can be found online with this article on www.jneb.org.
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
