HEALTH EDUCATION AS PART OF THE FORMATION OF HEALTH BEHAVIOURS AND COMPETENCES. THEORY AND PRACTICE

Health can be shaped by health behavior, which is influenced by health education, which is understood as a planned and systematic process during which people learn to take care of their own health and that of their communities. The aim of this type of education is to create an independent way of thinking and making independent choices as a necessary condition for initiating healthy behaviors. An important task here is to teach responsibility for behavior towards their own health, but also towards the health of the surrounding environment. Responsibility and care for health should be related to independent, well-established social attitudes as health competences.Health competences are defined as cognitive skills that promote good health (WHO, 1998). It is assumed that a low level of health literacy means, for example, that communication with a doctor is at a low level, which may lead to incomplete management of one's own health. The aim of the article is to indicate the importance of health education in shaping health behaviors as a consequence of health competences. Moreover, the aim of the article is to present the level of health competences in selected countries based on research.