Posted: 19 Oct 2012
European Health Award for study identifying health literacy problems
A research project measuring health literacy levels across eight European countries has won the European Health Award at the European Health Forum 2012 in Gastein, Austria.
The award is in recognition of ‘an outstanding contribution in meeting European health challenges by implementing a health policy initiative of European importance’.
The European Health Literacy Survey (HLS-EU) was conducted during 2011 across eight European countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia), Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, and Spain).
Pictured (l-r): Dr A Parvanova, MEP Bulgaria, N. Zylinska-Puta, Ministry of Health, Poland, Rapporteur Opening Ceremony, Dr Gerardine Doyle, Principal Investigator for Ireland, UCD, Kristine Sorensen, HLS-EU Project Co-ordinator, Maastricht University, Prof. G Leiner, President, International Forum Gastein
The survey of 8,000 people showed that 47% of respondents had limited health literacy, with more than 35% having problematic health literacy and 12% having inadequate health literacy.
Although the percentages differ considerably across the eight participating countries, the findings clearly point to an urgent need to advance health literacy across Europe.
Bulgaria, Spain and Austria were found to have the lowest levels of health literacy. In Ireland 38% of the people surveyed were deemed to have limited health literacy.
“The survey identified five significant social determinants of health literacy; financial deprivation, self assessed social status, level of education, age and gender,” said Dr Gerardine Doyle from the UCD School of Business, principal investigator for Ireland and co-author of the report.
Health literacy is linked to literacy and is defined as a person’s knowledge, motivation and competencies to access, understand, appraise, and apply health information in order to make judgments and take decisions in everyday life concerning healthcare, disease prevention and health promotion to maintain or improve quality of life during the life course.
“The survey found that the most vulnerable groups with a high proportion of limited health literacy (up to 70%) occurred where self-assessed social status was low, health status was very bad or bad, education was low, where a person had more than one long-term illness and for persons over 75 years,” explains Dr Doyle.
“When we examined the relationship between health literacy and health behaviour and health risk, a remarkable association was found with frequency of physical activity. Health literacy was not correlated with smoking behaviour in the full European sample. However in Ireland there was a significant relationship between health literacy and smoking.”
The findings indicate that the health literacy gap needs to be addressed by collaborative sustainable efforts of all stakeholders; governments, health professionals, education professionals and the private sector to achieve two goals 1) to decrease the complexity of our health systems making it easier for citizens to navigate the health service and 2) to improve the health literacy of citizens and patients through the actions of health professionals in educating their patients and through the education curriculum, which together will enable people to manage their own health more effectively.
The European Health Literacy Project (2009 – 2012) was led by Helmut Brand, Professor of European Public Health at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. The eight university partners were: National School of Public Health, Greece; University College Dublin, Ireland; Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft GmbH, Austria; Instytut Kardiologii, Poland; University of Murcia, Spain; Medical University, Sofia, Bulgaria; National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, the Netherlands; and Landesinstitut für Gesundheit und Arbeit des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen.
The project was co-financed by the European Commission’s Executive Agency for Health and Consumers. The Department of Health co-financed the data collection in Ireland.
(Produced by UCD University Relations)
