Promoting wellbeing within the Health Promoting Schools framework: Could life skills be a means rather than an end?

This paper explores the evolution and challenges of health promotion in educational settings, focusing on the Health Promoting Schools framework. Central to this approach is the empowerment of students through participatory strategies and community engagement to address health determinants and reduce inequities. Well-being, a subjective and multifaceted concept, is crucial for student success, with positive school climates playing a key role. Additionally, life skills (LS) are identified as potential tools for promoting student well-being, though their definition and assessment remain ambiguous. The paper concludes by highlighting the need for further research and clarity in order to maximize the impact of health promotion efforts in schools.

Glossary of healthcare pathways: a methodological approach involving a transdisciplinary team in public health.

Introduction: The healthcare pathway is at the heart of public health organization concerns, but communication between the various players can be an obstacle. This work, produced by a French transdisciplinary team, offers a methodological approach based on formalized consensus to elaborate a glossary of healthcare pathways. A two-steps procedure was elaborated, including a double rounded Delphi method to formalize expert consensus, and two groups of experts: a workgroup and a review group. Methods: The workgroup provided a list of words or expressions that, in their opinion, described, evaluated or compared the healthcare pathways for patients, caregivers or regulators. The review group checked this list and added or deleted words or expressions. Then, definitions were added by the workgroup based into account three dimensions: official, academic and from the field. The review group validated the definitions and provided complementary proposals if needed. Results: After pooling the list of words proposed by each of the six members of the working group, 417 words/expressions were ranked. After the two rounds of evaluation, 294 words/expressions were rated "appropriate" and were analyzed by the review group. This group, after two rounds of evaluation, agreed on 263 words/expressions that were transmitted to the working group who defined them. These definitions were rated by the review group. The first round of evaluation established 195 definitions as being appropriated whereas 68 definitions were amended by the review group. Conclusion: This glossary supports transdisciplinary communication, reduces the extent of variations in practice and optimizes decision-making. International debate on all aspects might be strengthened by an improved understanding of the concept of health pathway.

Defining Life Skills in health promotion at school: a scoping review.

Background: Life Skills have been central to Health Promotion interventions and programmes with children and adolescents for over 40 years. School is a strategic setting for Life Skills education. Recently, policy-and decision-makers have focused on Life Skills development for youth. Research on Life Skills has gained momentum. Different terms are used to discuss and define Life Skills. Research identifies a lack of conceptual definition. The purpose of this study is to identify the definitions in the literature in English and French, and to reach a conceptual and consensual definition. Method: The Scoping Review methodology was used. Three research questions aim to identify how Life Skills are defined in the field of health promotion at school, to see whether a conceptual and consensual definition exists, and, if relevant, to propose a conceptual definition. The search was conducted in 5 databases by 3 reviewers. This study focused on full-text publications in English or French, human studies, health promotion in school, school pupils, teacher training, and with a definition of Life Skills. Publications on after-school activities, higher education outside teacher training, adult education, other than peer-reviewed scientific papers were excluded. Results: 48 publications were included in English and 7 in French. NVIVO was used to determine and compare the French and English terms used for Life Skills and their definitions. According to the three research questions, (i) the terms used to define Life Skills are diverse and numerous, with different purposes at school in relation to health promotion, and different taxonomies, and relate to different areas of research; (ii) no consensual, conceptual definition of Life Skills was found; (iii) further semantic, epistemological and ontological clarifications are required. Conclusion: Some conceptual definitions of Life Skills exist without consensus. Life Skills being at the crossroads between different fields could explain this and is illustrated by the multiplicity and diversity of the terms employed, and the various taxonomies and purposes used at school in health promotion. This may also explain why they are difficult to evaluate. Defining Life Skills consensually cannot be achieved due to the diversity of research perspectives from different fields.

Supporting health education policies: translation, cross-cultural adaptation and validation of a health literacy instrument, in French.

Background: Oral health is a fundamental human right and is inseparable and indivisible from overall health and well-being. Oral Health Literacy (OHL) has been proved to be fundamental to promoting oral health and reducing oral health inequalities. To our knowledge, no OHL instrument to evaluate OHL level is currently validated in French language despite the fact it is the fifth most widely spoken languages on the planet. The Oral health literacy Instrument (OHLI) appears to be the most interesting OHL instrument to adapt into French because it is already available in English, Spanish, Russian, Malaysian, and it contains both reading comprehension and numeracy sections. Its psychometric properties have been rated as adequate. Objective: The aim of this study was to translate and adapt cross-culturally the OHLI into French, to evaluate its psychometric properties and to compare its results to oral health knowledge. Method: This study followed and applied well-established processes of translation, cross-cultural adaptation and validation, based on the recommendations of the World Health Organization guidelines and on the Consensus-Based Standards for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments (COSMIN) study design checklist for patient-reported outcomes. Two psychometric assessments were planned, the comparison of OHLI-F scores according to education level and frequency of dental visits, and the test-retest reliability of the OHLI-F. Results: A total of 284 participants answered the OHLI-F. The OHLI-F scores were significantly different between participants with different levels of education and frequency of dental visits (p < 0.001). Participants with an education level lower than the baccalaureate, and those who never visit the dentist or only in case of pain, had significantly lower OHLI-F scores. Internal consistency was excellent (Cronbach's alpha = 0.881-0.914). Test-retest reliability was very high (intraclass correlation = 0.985 to 0.996). Conclusion: The OHLI-F has demonstrated adequate psychometric properties and can therefore be used to measure oral health literacy in French-speaking populations.

Validation française de l'échelle de littératie en santé des élèves HLSAC (Health literacy for school-aged children).

INTRODUCTION: Health literacy, defined by WHO (World Health Organization) as the motivation and ability of individuals to access, understand and use information in ways that promote and maintain good health, is a critical health issue. Indeed, low levels among individuals can be associated with problems in interpreting health information, more frequent hospitalizations, incorrect use of medicines, poorer overall health, and increased mortality. PURPOSE OF RESEARCH: While the definitions and the major role of health literacy on the health of individuals are clearly established and seem to be in agreement, the same cannot be said for its measurement. There are only about fifteen tools for college students and none of them are in French. The purpose of this research is therefore to develop a measurement tool that can be used to assess the health literacy level of French schoolchildren. METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS: After a translation and retro-translation of the existing HLSAC scale (subjective health literacy brief instrument for school-aged children), we submitted it to 385 secondary school students aged 11 to 16 years old from the departments of Ain and Loire (average age = 12.8 years). We then carried out an exploratory factorial analysis, calculated the internal consistency of our tool, and then carried out a confirmatory factorial analysis, calculated fit indices. Finally, we checked the concurrent validity by calculating correlations with a related concept (self-efficacy). CONCLUSIONS: Our scale seems to have sufficient psychometric qualities to be able to apprehend the level of health literacy among middle-school students.