Y.1. PechaKucha: Adopting a global agenda for school health literacy: latest developments from the WHO and Europe

Abstract This round table workshop is jointly organized by the WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Literacy at the TU Munich, the WHO Health Promotion Department in Geneva, members of the WHO Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) Study, EuroHealthNet and the Schools4Health Consortium, and the EUPHA Health Literacy and Child and Adolescent Public Health Sections. The event will serve as a platform to present, explore, and discuss the latest research developments and policy implications regarding child, adolescent and school health and health literacy, both in Europe and worldwide. Despite its importance, low health literacy remains widespread across all population groups and is closely linked to poorer health outcomes and increased health inequalities. Individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are especially at risk, reinforcing the need for targeted interventions to address these disparities. Recognizing its importance, investment in health literacy has become a key priority within the EU's Horizon Europe Programme, the World Health Organization, and at governmental levels across Europe. In today's digital era, social media has become a dominant source of health information, especially for schoolchildren. While it offers opportunities for rapid information sharing, it also increases the risk of exposure to misinformation. However, health literacy is often not systematically integrated into school curricula, although it can have lasting positive impacts on both health and academic outcomes. This underscores the urgency (1) of equipping students with critical thinking skills to safely navigate information ecosystems and (2) to develop a global mechanism to monitor health literacy development in countries, schools, and education systems. In this round table workshop with five key health literacy and public health experts, these topics will underpin the discussion and draw on examples from WHO's global school (health) literacy survey, the health literacy competency framework for schools, and the decade-spanning European HBSC study. After a short introduction by the chairs, the panel members will share a short 2-to-3-minute statement from their point of view in relation to the ongoing WHO health literacy activities, highlighting synergies with the HBSC and Schools4Health studies as well as the WHO European School Health Network (SHE/ENHPS). Following the short statement, the chairs will prepare individual questions for each panellist and engage them in a discussion, which shortly after will open towards the audience for them to participate actively with the panellists in a 30-minute discussion, also using the online Slido platform. Key messages • The round table workshop will discuss a much-needed global strategy and road map on school health literacy and present collaboration opportunities for research, practice and policy. • Equipping students with health literacy and critical thinking is vital to combat misinformation, support wellbeing in the digital age, and can be achieved through school health literacy action. Speakers/Panellists Faten Ben Abdelaziz WHO, Geneva, Switzerland Tina Purnat Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA Leena Paakkari University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland Caroline Costongs EuroHealthNet, Brussels, Belgium