Health promotion journal of Australia : official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals
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Health Promot J Austr · Aug 2012
Assessing the capacity of New Zealand health promoters to develop programs that meet the health literacy needs of both consumers and government.
Since 2008 a conservative government in New Zealand has emphasised the importance of individual responsibility for health, with the implication that health promotion, including health literacy, would be of low priority. This paper discusses this in the context of research that aims to assess (i) the views of disadvantaged consumers on nutrition information and (ii) health promoter competence in health literacy practice, and argues that aspects of health literacy principles may indeed be of interest to conservative governments. ⋯ Consumer acceptance of individual responsibility and workforce capability in technical aspects of health literacy suggest that health promotion organisations can align themselves with government goals and seek to improve personal health literacy.