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8.M. Round table: Health literacy and vaccine
literacy as determinants of vaccine acceptance: a
critical discussion
Abstract citation ID: ckac129.517
Organised by: EUPHA Working Group Health Literacy, EUPHA-HP,
Technical University Munich, Public Health Austria, Careum
Switzerland, Global Health Literacy Academy
Chair persons: Orkan Okan (EUPHA-HP), Kristine Sørensen (Denmark)
Contact: orkan.okan@tum.de
In 2019, Sars-Cov-2 caused the greatest pandemic the modern
world has ever faced. The pandemic was unprecedented
regarding its effects on all aspects of society. Since the
outbreak, debates on vaccines have been elevated in public
health. The pandemic also emerged into a game changer
regarding health communication and information delivery.
With digital communication technologies, the Internet and
Social Media being the most important tools to discuss health
matters, exchange health knowledge and get advice from peers,
every human has been part of a global communication
network discussing the pandemic, related policies and
vaccines. The digital realm allowed everybody to contribute
to the state of Covid-19 related health information and absorb
them. Altogether, this led to an overabundance of accurate and
false information circulating the digital world, which culmi-
nated into the information epidemic (infodemic). Early on in
the pandemic, it became obvious that people need compe-
tencies enabling them to navigate digital information environ-
ments, manage (digital) health information and to use digital
health services that were accelerated through Covid-19. While
health literacy and vaccine literacy were undervalued at the
time, policy makers and practitioners soon highlighted their
critical role in mitigating the spread of coronavirus, for
protection against infection and increasing adherence to public
health emergency measures. In context of the Covid-19
pandemic, health literacy enables people to find, understand
and critically appraise relevant information and use it for
prevention behaviour. Since it empowers individuals to
mitigate the effects of the pandemic, health literacy is seen as
a social vaccines. Vaccine literacy is a sub-dimension about
health literacy, which especially became important when global
roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines began in 2021. Vaccine literacy
helps people to understand what a vaccine is, why it is relevant
to get vaccinated and how it protects oneself and others. In
addition, vaccine literacy empowers people to find vaccine-
related information and judge about vaccine claims. The
purpose of this roundtable is to discuss research findings on
health literacy and vaccine literacy in relation to Covid-19, the
determinants of vaccine acceptance, vaccine hesitancy and
vaccine attitudes, generated in different European studies: (1)
the international trend study HLS-Covid-19 conducted in
Germany, Austria and Switzerland, (ii) HLCA-Kids-NRW on
coronavirus-specific health literacy in primary schoolchildren
(Germany) and (iii) the HLS19 European Health Literacy
Survey. While the roundtable aims at introducing empirical
findings, each panelist will provide a statement related to the
roundtable theme based on the findings of their study.
Together with the audiences, we will discuss about lessons
learned from the pandemic and how to utilize health and
vaccine literacy to increase vaccine acceptance.
Key messages:
Health literacy is a social vaccine and empowers people to
manage health information and increase vaccine acceptance.
Vaccine literacy is a sub-dimension of health literacy and in
particular is useful when addressed as part of public health
emergency strategies.
Speakers/Panellists:
Orkan Okan
Technical University Munich, Munich, Germany
Kristine Sørensen
Global Health Literacy Academy, Risskov, Denmark
Robert Griebler
Austrian National Public Health Institute, Vienna, Austria
Saskia De Gani
Careum Center for Health Literacy, Zu
¨rich, Switzerland
Torsten Michael Bollweg
Technical University Munich, Munich, Germany
8.N. Pitch presentations: School-environment and
health behaviour
Abstract citation ID: ckac129.518
The effect of active breaks on cognitive performance
and classroom behaviour: the I-move study
Matteo Ricci
A Masini
1
, M Ricci
1
, S Marini
2
, A Ceciliani
2
, G Barone
2
, D Gori
1
,
L Bragonzoni
2
, A Sansavini
3
, A Tessari
3
, L Dallolio
1
1
Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, Alma Mater
Studiorum - University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
2
Department of Life Quality Studies, Alma Mater Studiorum - University of
Bologna, Rimini, Italy
3
Department of Psychology ‘‘Renzo Canestrari’’, Alma Mater Studiorum -
University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Contact: matteo.ricci18@studio.unibo.it
Background:
Active Breaks (ABs) intervention involves short bouts of
moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) conducted
during or between curricular lessons by the appropriately
trained teachers. The aim of the Imola Active Breaks Study (I-
MOVE study) was to evaluate the effect of an ABs intervention
on cognitive function and classroom behaviour in primary
school children.
Methods:
The study was quasi-experimental, and it involved two groups
attending a primary school in Imola (Bologna, Italy). The
Active Breaks group (ABsG) performed the I-MOVE protocol
consisting in 10 minutes of ABs divided in warm up, tone-up
with high intensity interval training and cool-down. This is
15th European Public Health Conference 2022 iii209
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