Importance of Health Literacy, Physical Literacy and Body Composition in Adolescents

This article discusses a study conducted in Southern Croatia with 253 participants of adult age, which followed three variables; Health literacy, Body composition and Physical literacy. It also highlights the importance of promoting healthy behavior in adolescents and the pros and cons of adolescent independence.

Communications for Healthcare
Professionals

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................3
STUDY...................................................................................................................................3
MY OPINION........................................................................................................................3
PROS AND CONS.................................................................................................................4
RESULT.................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
It is of vital importance to put health on priority at every stage of life. Adolescence is the
stage when an individual become independent regarding their health and lonely responsible to
reflect healthy behaviour. Healthy behaviour depends on many factors in this period of life
includes; nutritional habit, substance misuse, physical exercise as well as mental state. Education
is playing a remarkable role since a long time in educate people regarding good nutritional value
and active participation in physical activities, sports and games (Faigenbaum, Rebullido &
Chulvi-Medrano, 2020). Recently at global level it has been observed that among adults and
youngsters, prevalence of substance misuse is increasing with a rapid rate. Alcohol consumption,
habit of chewing tobacco and smoking seems to impacts the health of young generation as well
as fast life promoting poor nutritional value through quick foods available in market. Hence it
become crucial to identify concepts and determinants and promote strategies to prevent adverse
health outcomes and promote healthy behaviour.
MAIN BODY
STUDY
A study has been conducted in Southern Croatia with 253 participants of adult age. The
study has followed under three variables; Health literacy, Body composition and Physical
literacy. Health literacy factor associated with the measurement of an individual on the basis of
his/her ability, appraise, understanding by applying health-related information. Physical literacy
relates to measurement of estimation of numeracy, literacy and physical literacy with various
settings, fitness, different aspects of PL includes; cognitive and affective one and the
environmental ability. And the last variable that is anthropometric includes the measurement of
body mass, visceral fat, muscle mass, body height and the BMI was also calculated (Hosker,
Elkins & Potter, 2019).
MY OPINION
Adolescents should understand the short-term and long-term consequences of unhealthy
habits and substance abuse. Children should learn the positive aspects of living life with good
nutritional value and they should be promoted to follow physical exercise at school level.
Stigmatisation regarding smoking in recently developing society of young need to understand
that their physique and body is an precious asset to their life. Tobacco and alcohol consumption

can reduce their performance in academics, sports as well as sexually (Pascoe et. al., 2020).
These things have major impact on mental health also.
PROS AND CONS
The benefit of independence is that; adults become responsible regarding their life and
improved decision-making power without any dependence to others. They are capable enough
tio understand that what is good and what is bad for themselves, and what they can do or want
they want according to their calibre (Okuyama et. al., 2021).
The drawback of adolescent independence is complete loss of parental control and
involvement of adults in bad activities. Fast and rapid life encourage them to adopt some bad
activities to cope up with the life and to deal with many problems in life.
RESULT
Boys and girls have shown significant difference in anthropometric variable. The boys
were ended up to show heavy body weight, tall in height, increased muscle mass and
comparatively low level of body fat in comparison to the girls. While in variable of HL and PL;
no difference has been marked exceptionally in PLAY literacy where the girls achieved higher
results than the boys (Howie et. al., 2020).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that at every stage of life, especially at
adolescence; it is important to take extra care of physical and mental health of an individual. As
adolescence is the stage at which whole life of an individual depends. Along with physical
exercise, going to gym and perform physical activities; it is also important for adults to pay
attention to their diet and type of food they intake. Independence does not mean to just enjoy life
at own terms but it also means to understand the values, duties and responsibilities that an
individual hold regarding life and nation.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Faigenbaum, A. D., Rebullido, T. R., & Chulvi-Medrano, I. (2020). Youth physical activity is all
about the “F-Words”. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 42(6), 2-6.
Hosker, D. K., Elkins, R. M., & Potter, M. P. (2019). Promoting mental health and wellness in
youth through physical activity, nutrition, and sleep. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric
Clinics, 28(2), 171-193.
Howie, E. K., Guagliano, J. M., Milton, K., Vella, S. A., Gomersall, S. R., Kolbe-Alexander, T.
L., ... & Pate, R. R. (2020). Ten research priorities related to youth sport, physical activity,
and health. Journal of physical activity and health, 17(9), 920-929.
Okuyama, J., Seto, S., Fukuda, Y., Funakoshi, S., Amae, S., Onobe, J., ... & Imamura, F. (2021).
Mental health and physical activity among children and adolescents during the COVID-19
pandemic. The Tohoku journal of experimental medicine, 253(3), 203-215.
Pascoe, M., Bailey, A. P., Craike, M., Carter, T., Patten, R., Stepto, N., & Parker, A. (2020).
Physical activity and exercise in youth mental health promotion: A scoping review. BMJ
open sport & exercise medicine, 6(1), e000677.