Health Empowerment Model Paper

1.4. Taking a fresh look at the role of health literacy and empowerment in explaining health behaviors: the Health Empowerment Model
The Health Empowerment Model puts forward that health behaviors are influenced by patient empowerment and health literacy. Despite the common assumption in the health behavior literature, high literacy does not necessarily entail a high level of patient empowerment and vice versa. On the contrary, Schulz and Nakamoto (2013) argued that a mismatch between health literacy and empowerment can have a deleterious impact on health outcomes. On the one hand, a highly empowered patient lacking adequate health literacy skills might make dangerous health-related decisions and engage in detrimental health behaviors. On