Identifying barriers to organizational health literacy in public health departments in Germany

Abstract

Abstract Background To master challenges to their environmental health, people have to have health literacy (HL). At a national and communal level, focus is shifting from individual HL to health care organizations. They have to raise their organizational health literacy (OHL) to help their users to access information and services. In Germany, public health departments are responsible for environmental health at a population level while the environmental administration is responsible for health-related environmental protection. To date, there is no research on the OHL of public health departments in Germany. Which are the barriers that keep public health organizations from raising their OHL as well as from making better use of possible synergies with the environmental administration? Methods The study consisted of interviews with experts from public health (n = 7) and environmental departments (n = 5) at communal (n = 8) up to federal state level (n = 4). Experts were asked for their insight on barriers for OHL as well as for cross-sector collaboration. They were selected for a wide range in socioeconomic factors and administrative levels. The interviews were recorded between 10/2018-04/2019. After transcription the anonymized interviews underwent qualitative content analysis. Results In twelve interviews 10.4 h of audio were recorded. Content analysis revealed 13 barriers for OHL. Several of those had been described for hospitals before while others, like low responsiveness to the needs of the public, were unknown so far. Preliminary results also indicated several barriers for cross-sectoral cooperation as well as recommendations to overcome said barriers. Conclusions Interviews with public health and environmental administrative organizations turned up 13 barriers that keep them from raising their OHL. Implementing preliminary recommendations could result in better cooperation, in higher OHL, higher environmental health and therefore contribute to public health in the general population. Key messages Interviews with experts from public health and environmental administrative organizations in Germany turned up barriers that keep them from raising both their OHL and cross-sectoral cooperation. Implementing preliminary recommendations could result in higher OHL of public health departments and higher environmental health of the general public and thus contribute greatly to public health.