Health-Literate Healthcare Organizations and Quality of Care in Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study Conducted in Tuscany

Guglielmo Bonaccorsi, Anna Romiti, Francesca Ierardi, Maddalena Innocenti, Marco Del Riccio, Silvia Frandi, Letizia Bachini, Patrizio Zanobini, Fabrizio Gemmi and Chiara Lorini
Additional contact information
Guglielmo Bonaccorsi: Department of Health Science, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Anna Romiti: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Francesca Ierardi: Quality and Equity Unit, Regional Health Agency of Tuscany, 50141 Florence, Italy
Maddalena Innocenti: Department of Health Science, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Marco Del Riccio: Department of Health Science, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Silvia Frandi: Department of Health Science, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Letizia Bachini: Quality and Equity Unit, Regional Health Agency of Tuscany, 50141 Florence, Italy
Patrizio Zanobini: Department of Health Science, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Fabrizio Gemmi: Quality and Equity Unit, Regional Health Agency of Tuscany, 50141 Florence, Italy
Chiara Lorini: Department of Health Science, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 7, 1-16

Abstract: The concept of Health-Literate Healthcare Organization (HLHO) concerns the strategies by which healthcare organizations make it easier for people to navigate, understand, and use information and services to take care of their health. The aims of this study were to validate the HLHO-10 questionnaire in the Italian language; to measure the degree of implementation of the 10 attributes of HLHOs in a sample of hospitals placed in Tuscany; and to assess the association between the degree of implementation of the 10 attributes of HLHOs and the perceived quality of care. This was a cross-sectional study where data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire including three sections: a descriptive section, a section focused on the perceived quality, and the Italian version of the HLHO-10 questionnaire. A total amount of 405 healthcare managers answered the questionnaire (54.9%). The analysis shows that the HLHO score is significantly associated with the type of hospitals: accredited private hospitals have higher HLHO scores. Moreover, the perceived quality increases with the increasing of the HLHO score, with the highest coefficient for local public hospitals. In conclusion, Organizational Health Literacy culture should be an integral element for the management to improve the quality of care.

Keywords: HLHO; perceived quality of care; health literacy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/7/2508/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/7/2508/ (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:17:y:2020:i:7:p:2508-:d:342112

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 ().