Positive Outcomes of a Comprehensive Health Literacy Communication Training for Health Professionals in Three European Countries: A Multi-centre Pre-post Intervention Study

Marise S. Kaper, Andrea F. de Winter, Roberta Bevilacqua, Cinzia Giammarchi, Anne McCusker, Jane Sixsmith, Jaap A.R. Koot and Sijmen A. Reijneveld
Additional contact information
Marise S. Kaper: University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Health Sciences, 9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands
Andrea F. de Winter: University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Health Sciences, 9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands
Roberta Bevilacqua: IRCCS INRCA (the National Institute of Health and Science on Aging), 60124 Ancona, Italy
Cinzia Giammarchi: IRCCS INRCA (the National Institute of Health and Science on Aging), 60124 Ancona, Italy
Anne McCusker: Belfast Healthy Cities, Belfast BT1 1RD, UK
Jane Sixsmith: Health Promotion Research Centre, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway H91 TK33, Ireland
Jaap A.R. Koot: University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Health Sciences, 9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands
Sijmen A. Reijneveld: University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Health Sciences, 9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 20, 1-14

Abstract: Many professionals have limited knowledge of how to address health literacy; they need a wider range of health literacy competencies to enhance empowerment and person-centred prevention. We evaluated whether: (1) a comprehensive health literacy training increased self-rated competencies of health professionals to address health literacy related problems and support the development of people’s autonomy and self-management abilities after training and 6–12 weeks later, (2) professionals were satisfied with the training, (3) outcomes differed for the three participating European countries. Health professionals (N = 106) participated in a multicentre pre-post intervention study in Italy, the Netherlands and Northern Ireland. The 8-hour training-intervention involved health literacy knowledge, the practice of comprehensible communication skills, shared decision-making, and enhancing self-management. Self-rated health literacy competencies and training satisfaction were assessed at baseline, immediately after training and 6-12 weeks later, and analysed by multi-level analysis. Professionals’ self-rated health literacy competencies significantly improved following training in all three countries; this increase persisted at 6-12 weeks follow-up. The strongest increase regarded professional’s skills to enhance shared-decision making and enabling self-management after training and follow-up respectively. Professionals perceived the training as relevant for practice. Competency increases seemed to be consistent across countries. In three countries, professionals’ self-rated health literacy competencies increased following this comprehensive training. These promising findings should be confirmed in a further full effect study. Implementation of this training in European education and health care may improve person-centred communication by professionals and might help to tackle health literacy related problems and to strengthen people’s abilities in achieving better health outcomes.

Keywords: health literacy; person-centred communication; health promotion; health professional; capacity building; continuing professional education; empowerment; shared decision-making; self-management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/20/3923/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/20/3923/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:20:p:3923-:d:276866

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().