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Why we need action

Initiatives to develop health-literate organizations and policies are crucial for boosting improvements in the health outcomes and well-being of diverse community members. By fostering health literacy development within health systems and across local and national policies, we can collectively facilitate improvements in how individuals and communities can equitably access, understand, appraise, remember, and use health information and services to create a healthier future for all.

Work Package 6 aims to:

  • Improve health literacy and raise awareness of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes mellitus (DM) risks and risk factors at both individual and societal levels.
  • Reduce the impact of these diseases by proposing a health literacy strategy that makes possible the detection and treatments as soon as possible.
  • Help people with CVD and DM to improve their quality of life and life expectancy.
  • Understand the existing initiatives related to health literacy in the context of CVD, DM, and their risk factors across EU countries.
  • Identify gaps and opportunities for health literacy interventions, focusing on equity, empowerment, and local adaptation.
  • Develop and adapt health literacy tools, structures, and processes for local, contextually relevant pilots to empower the general population, the vulnerable, and those who were left behind by promoting health literacy through tailored interventions for different target groups.
  • Conduct implementable and sustainable health literacy development pilots/projects that respond to local contexts and demands to strengthen health literacy capacity and prevent/control CVD and DM in diverse settings and populations.
  • Assess the implemented health literacy-based pilots/projects with measurements of the actions put in place and propose a roadmap for scaling up the programs at various levels (local, regional, national, and EU-wide).

WP6 contributes to the overarching goal to enable equitable access to health information, and services and reduce social inequalities, including among culturally and ethnically diverse populations.

Our mission

Work Package 6 aims to enhance health literacy and equity among the general population and patients by raising awareness about CVD and DM. The specific objectives are to map existing health literacy activities, design tailored tools for local contexts, implement pilots for health literacy improvement, and assess the outcomes to develop a roadmap for scaling up successful programs. Overall, the mission is to empower individuals, especially vulnerable populations, by promoting health literacy and preventing/controlling CVD and DM.

Our action plan

Work Package 6 conducts five main activities to achieve its objectives:

1.

Mapping current health literacy activities:

  • Gather health literacy initiatives at the national level across EU countries related to CVD, DM, and their risk factors.
  • Use the WHO Health Literacy Action Areas for analysis.
  • Perform a literature review to identify effective health literacy actions.
  • Develop a document that describes the ideal state of health literacy to be achieved at the EU level and identify the gaps to overcome at the member state level.

2.

Pilot preparation – situation analysis and local needs:

  • Identify options for health literacy projects, and interventions through a situation analysis of pilots/projects in different sites.
  • Apply the WHO Health Literacy Development approach and the adapted Ophelia (Optimising Health Literacy and Access) process to co-design health literacy actions and prioritize opportunities for local to national impact.
  • Provide specialized training to pilot projects on health literacy development and implementation using the Ophelia approach.

3.

Pilot preparation – prioritization and customization

  • Engage target groups in the selection process.
  • Design and plan customized health literacy projects/pilots for different target groups.
  • Undertake extensive pre-testing of health literacy actions across pilots to maximize acceptability and implementation potential.

4.

Pilot implementation:

  • Support and harmonize up to 25 health literacy projects/pilots in Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Iceland, Italy, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and Ukraine in various settings from primary prevention to treatment.
  • Develop, implement, and, where possible, prepare for scaleup, interventions co-designed using the Ophelia process.

5.

Assessment and roadmap:

  • Assess the implemented pilots using key performance indicators and implementation research frameworks.
  • Use the WHO Expand model to develop a roadmap for scaling up programs at local, regional, national, and EU-wide levels.
  • Engage key stakeholders in a face-to-face workshop to shape and plan for implementation of the scaling-up roadmap.

The overall aim is to empower vulnerable populations by promoting health literacy, with a focus on preventing and modifying various risk factors responsible for CVD and DM. It involves a comprehensive approach, from mapping existing initiatives to implementing and assessing tailored health literacy interventions.

Strategies for long-term success

The strategies for long-term success in Work Package 6 include:

  • Employing authentic co-design with all relevant stakeholders from project inception through to the implementation of each project.
  • Taking careful consideration of all relevant elements of health literacy determinants to ensure projects will be acceptable to diverse community members, effective, and sustainable. Using elements that facilitate the transfer of training to practice will help improve long-term success.
  • Addressing barriers and promoting facilitators, as well as integrating and connecting health literacy strategies with existing organizational goals and initiatives offer additional ways to reinforce and sustain the practice change.
  • Continuing skill building that reinforces behaviors, and supports successful practices. Encouraging self-reflection can be a good strategy to follow.
  • Sharing expertise and learning from each other can better address the empowerment of vulnerable people and build a vibrant community of practice on health literacy on CVD, DM, and their risk factors.
  • Assess projects/pilots’ outcomes using key performance indicators and implementation research.
  • Develop a scaling-up roadmap using the WHO Expand model.
  • Engage stakeholders in shaping the roadmap through workshops.