Investigating knowledge structure and research trends in child and adolescent health literacy research through network text analysis

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the knowledge structure and research trends in child and adolescent health literacy research over the past 30 years by using network text analysis.Method: The study was conducted in four steps: 1) collecting abstracts, 2) keyword extraction and preprocessing, 3) creation of co-occurrence matrix, and 4) text network analysis.Results: As a result of the centrality analysis, the upper-ranked core keywords were "health care," "health behav-ior," "prevention," "treatment," and "health promotion." In contrast to earlier times, "barrier," "caregiver," "school setting," and "QOL" have recently emerged as core keywords.Conclusions: Over the past 30 years, child and adolescent health literacy has been importantly addressed in both clinical and public health approaches. The results of the current study provide references for future research in child and adolescent health literacy. Implication for practice and research: This study suggests the need for additional research on school-based prac-tices that can improve health literacy and for identifying validated and reliable multidimensional health literacy assessment instruments.(c) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.