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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Gill Rowlands, Dr Siân Russell, Professor Amy O'DonnellORCiD, Professor Eileen KanerORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
Health literacy is gaining increasing attention as a means of promoting health. This evidence synthesis describes health literacy policies in the WHO European Region: their distribution, organizational levels, antecedents, actors, activities and outcomes, along with the factors influencing their effectiveness. Evidence was obtained by a scoping review of academic literature in English, Dutch and German and of grey literature in English, Dutch, German and Italian, supported by a Region-wide expert enquiry. Emerging findings were presented to representatives from 19 Member States of the Region to check for accuracy and omissions. The report highlights much good health literacy policy-related activity, mostly in the health and education sectors, and proposes areas for future development. Policy considerations to facilitate the sharing of good health literacy policy practice, the development of policy aims and activities across all societal areas, and the development of robust health literacy metrics to identify the need for and monitor effectiveness are presented.
Author(s): Rowlands GP, Russell S, O'Donnell A, Kaner E, Trezona A, Rademakers J, Nutbeam D
Series Editor(s): Takahashi,R;
Publication type: Report
Publication status: Published
Series Title: Health Evidence Network (HEN) synthesis reports
Type: Report
Year: 2018
Pages: 1-52
Print publication date: 14/06/2018
Online publication date: 14/06/2018
Acceptance date: 02/05/2018
Institution: World Health Organisation (Europe)
Place Published: Copenhagen, Denmark
URL: http://www.euro.who.int/en/data-and-evidence/evidence-informed-policy-making/publications/2018/what-is-the-evidence-on-existing-policies-and-linked-activities-and-their-effectiveness-for-improving-health-literacy-at-national,-regional-and-organizational-levels-in-the-who-european-region-2018