Analysis of the Association Between Health Literacy, Physical Literacy, and Scholastic Achievement; A Preliminary Cross-Sectional Study Among High-School Students From Southern Croatia

Theoretically, health literacy (HL) and physical literacy (PL) should be associated with overall education, but little is known about their association with scholastic achievement. The aim of this study was to investigate whether scholastic variables relate to HL and PL among high-school adolescents. We observed 268 high school students (202 females, 66 males) who were assessed on HL using the HLS-EU47 questionnaire and PL by PLAYself questionnaire. Scholastic variables included grade point average and excused and unexcused number of absences from school. Gender-stratified correlations, cluster analysis, and discriminant canonical analysis were calculated to establish the associations between study variables. The correlations between HL and scholastic variables were generally poor, while statistically significant correlations between grade point average and HL were noted only among girls (R=0.16, p<0.05). Cluster and discriminant analyses confirmed higher HL and PL among girls who were better at school. While associations between HL and PL with scholastic achievement were generally poor, our results point to the necessity of further investigation of a problem. Hence, specific types of knowledge should be explored as possible correlates of HL and PL in adolescence.