2.K. Workshop: Measuring population health literacy. Results of the European health literacy survey 2019

Abstract

Abstract As experience in many countries has shown, measuring population health literacy is important for putting health literacy on the agenda of health policy, practice and research and to inform health policy where there is specific need for improving health literacy by interventions. There is growing evidence that there exists limited comprehensive health literacy for considerable proportions of the general population, that there is a social gradient for health literacy and that limited health literacy has problematic consequences for healthy lifestyles, self-reported health and utilization of professional health services. It was also shown that distributions and associations of health literacy differ considerable between countries. WHÓs Solid Facts - Health Literacy (2013) recommended that health literacy should be monitored regularly by standardized measures in as many countries as possible. Therefore WHO-Europe has initiated the Action Network Measuring Population and Organizational Health Literacy (M-POHL) of national policy experts and researchers. M-POHL has initiated as its first project the European Health Literacy Survey 2019 (HLS19). Based on the European Health Literacy Survey HLS-EU (2011), HLS19 has further developed instruments for measuring general comprehensive health literacy and specific measures for measuring e.g. digital health literacy. This survey is taking place in more than 15 countries of the WHO Europe Region and will have available preliminary first results in October 2020. Therefore the workshop is intended to present first internally comparative results and exemplary national results for health literacy and its correlates and discuss possible consequences of these results for health policy. The workshop will focus on measuring comprehensive health literacy and digital health literacy in general populations of selected member states of the WHO European Region. Design of the workshop: Introduction (5′), Presentation 1: Results of measuring comprehensive health literacy in general populations - An international comparison (20′), Statements of Panelists (10′), Discussion with audience (10′), Presentation 2: Results of measuring digital health literacy in general populations - An international comparison (20′), Statements of Panelists (10′), Discussion with audience (10′), Closing (5′). Key messages Distributions of comprehensive health literacy of general populations and associations with its social determinants and health consequences differ considerably between countries of WHO-Europe. A new measure for digital health literacy in general populations is related to comprehensive health literacy and varies considerably between countries of the WHO-Europe Region.