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Awareness weeks guide

Health Literacy Month

 

Health Literacy Month

October 2024

Health literacy describes the ability of a person to understand information about health and health care to make informed decisions about their own care. Health literacy is important because it shapes people’s health and the safety and quality of health care. SA Health

UpToDate

Cochrane Library

Online resources

Clinical care

Patients

Reports

Articles

Person centered care

Health care workforce

Research

E-books

E-journals

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Articles

Person centered care

Parenting Pain Away: Development and usability testing of an educational website about infant procedural pain management
Limited evidence-based resources about infant procedural pain management targeting parents in the perinatal period exist. The authors co-created Parenting Pain Away, a website to enhance parents' access to information and participation in procedural pain management following birth. This study aimed to conduct iterative usability testing with the perinatal population to refine Parenting Pain Away based on target users' identified needs and satisfaction. Paediatric and neonatal pain 21 February 2023

The concept of child-centred care in healthcare: A scoping review
Although child-centred care is increasingly referred to within the nursing literature, a clear definition of child-centred care and clarity around the concept is yet to be achieved. The objectives of this review were to examine the following: (1) What constitutes the concept of child-centred care in healthcare? (2) How has the concept of child-centred care developed? (3) What is the applicability of child-centred care and what are its limitations? (4) How does the concept of child-centred care benefit and inform children’s healthcare? In total, 2984 papers were imported for screening, and, following the removal of duplicates and screening, 21 papers were included in the scoping review. The findings suggest that child-centred care is an emerging, ambiguous poorly defined concept; no clear consensus exists about what constitutes child-centred care. Although it seems antithetical to argue against child-centred care, little robust evidence was identified that demonstrates the impact and benefit of child-centred care. If child-centred care is to be a sustainable, convincing model to guide practice and compete with other models of care, it needs to establish robust evidence of its effectiveness, the impact on children and their families, as well as the wider impacts on the healthcare system. Pediatric reports 1 February 2024

The League: A person-centred approach to the development of social robotics for paediatric anxiety
There is an ethical imperative to meaningfully incorporate the voices of youth and young adults with psychiatric conditions in the development of devices intended to support their mental health and quality of life. Health expectations 27 January 2024

Person-centred quality indicators are associated with unplanned care use following hospital discharge
This study demonstrates that patient reports of their in-hospital experiences may have value in predicting future healthcare use. In developing the person-centred quality indicators (PC-QIs), patients indicated which elements of their hospital care matter most to them, and our results show agreement between subjective and objective measures of care quality. Future research may explore how current readmission prediction models may be augmented by person-reported experiences. BMJ open quality 3 January 2024

Finding the balance between person-centred and treatment-centred discussions in advance care planning—a qualitative analysis of conversations within the MUTUAL (Multidisciplinary Timely Undertaken Advance Care Planning conversations) intervention using a narrative analysis
Person-centred and treatment-centred focus varied within the Advance care planning (ACP) conversations in the MUTUAL intervention. Certain strategies by healthcare professionals facilitated a more person-centred focus. Age and aging 6 Mach 2024

A novel drive-through approach to vaccination of children and young people with neurodevelopmental disability
This paper describes a novel, individualised approach to safe vaccination for this cohort. In consultation with stakeholders, a drive-through clinic vaccination model was developed and implemented for children/young people with neurodevelopmental disability. The model prioritised person-centred care and minimised triggering factors experienced in community clinics. Journal of paediatrics and child health 11 June 2024

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Health care workforce

Educational programmes for paediatric healthcare professionals in patient- and family-centred care. A scoping review
A large variety of educational programmes in paediatric patient- and family-centred care exist. Educational content mainly focused on communication and relational competencies. Experiential learning including roleplay and simulation was the most used educational strategy. European journal of pediatrics 2 March 2024

A concept analysis of person-centred handover practices: The meaning in emergency departments
Results suggested that person-centred handover practices involve verbal and non– verbal interprofessional communication within a specific location in the emergency department. It requires mutual respect from all professionals involved, experience and training, and the participation of the patient and / or family to improve patient outcomes and quality patient care. A definition for the concept may encourage the implementation of person-centred handover practices in emergency departments. International emergency nursing 26 April 2024

New frontiers in health literacy: Using ChatGPT to simplify health information for people in the community
This study used multiple objective assessments of health literacy to demonstrate that ChatGPT can simplify health information while retaining most key messages. However, the revised texts typically did not meet health literacy targets for grade reading score, and improvements were marginal for texts that were already relatively simple. Journal of general internal medicine 8 November 2023

A meta-ethnography of shared decision-making in mental health care from the perspective of staff and service users
Both staff and service users found shared decision making (SDM) to be an important factor in delivering high quality, effective mental health care. Despite this, participants had very little experience of implementing SDM in practice due to several personal, professional, and organisational challenges. This suggests that differences exist between what services strive towards achieving, and the experience of those implementing this in practice. These findings suggest that further research needs to be conducted to fully understand the barriers of implementing SDM in mental health services with training delivered to staff and service users about SDM. BMC health services research 27 September 2024

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Research

A rapid evidence review on health literacy and health behaviors in older populations
Highlights

  • First review to investigate the relationship between health literacy and a wide range of health behaviors among older adults.
  • Limited health literacy is associated with lower engagement in health behaviors such as physical activity, dietary variety, and participation in medical checkups.
  • Alcohol consumption has been shown to have a negative relationship with health literacy.
  • Results from this study can be used to improve interventions that are meant to promote health behaviors.

Ageing and health research 12 June 2024

Using online health information for unknown symptoms common among young adults: a qualitative analysis of health-related web pages illustrating the need for numeracy skills, the ability to deal with uncertainty, and the risk of ruling out self-care
This study’s aim was to explore how health information websites express and communicate health information about symptoms common among young adults and guide readers in regard to health, illness, and care. For readers inexperienced with health care, forming a decisive conclusion about diffuse symptoms on the sole basis of online health information could be challenging. The necessity of numeracy skills and the ability to deal with uncertainty are highlighted. There is a discrepancy between health advice given online and readers’ accessibility to health care that needs to be addressed in future policy and research. Scandinavian journal of primary health care

The relationship of E-health literacy with Cyberchondria: A cross-sectional study on pregnant women
The results of the study showed that the level of e-health literacy and cyberchondria of pregnant women was moderate, and that e-health literacy, age and education level would affect cyberchondria. Therefore, this problem can be prevented by providing digital health practices, e-health literacy and safe internet use training to pregnant women in health institutions and the media. Journal of health literacy 28 February 2024

Developing a burn-specific family-centered care (BS-FCC) framework: A multi-method study
A burn has been described as a family injury warranting the delivery of family-centered care (FCC) across the continuum of burns management. This assertion notwithstanding, only limited progress has been made to develop and implement FCC interventions in the burn unit. As a starting point, this study sought to formulate a tentative framework to underpin FCC in burn care. European burn journal 23 June 2023

Factors associated with advance care planning engagement among community-dwelling older adults: A cross-sectional study
Increased anxiety and decisional conflict were associated with reduced advance care planning engagement directly, even among community-dwelling older adults with higher levels of education and health literacy. Increased anxiety was associated with reduced advance care planning engagement indirectly via increased decisional conflict. Healthcare professionals should assess community-dwelling older adults' anxiety and implement interventions to manage their anxiety and decisional conflict, as these may facilitate their engagement in advance care planning. Journal of clinical nursing 20 September 2024

Understanding the influences on hospital discharge decision-making from patient, carer and staff perspectives
This study highlights the need for a more coordinated approach to discharge decision-making that optimises communication with patients and carers and multidisciplinary workflows and reduces fragmentation. The importance of patient-centred care and a personalised approach to care are well established. However, there is a need to design systems to customise the entirety of the patient journey, including the approach to discharge decision making. BMC health services research 19 September 2024

A qualitative study of negative sociocultural experiences of accessing primary health care services among Africans from refugee backgrounds in Australia: implications for organisational health literacy
African refugees experience significant social and cultural challenges in accessing primary health care services. These challenges could be due to a lack of literacy on the part of health services and their providers in servicing the needs of African refugees. This is an important finding that needs to be addressed by the Australian health care system and services. Enhancing organisational health literacy through evidence-informed strategies in primary health systems and services can help reduce disparities in health access and outcomes that may be exacerbated by cultural, linguistic and religious difference. BMC primary care 4 September 2024

Equity in Choosing Wisely and beyond: the effect of health literacy on healthcare decision-making and methods to support conversations about overuse
Adults with limited health literacy continue to have lower scores on decision-making outcomes in the context of low value care. Ongoing work is needed to develop and test different intervention formats that support people with lower health literacy to engage in question asking and hared decision-making (SDM). BMJ quality and safety 22 August 2024

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E-Journals

This is just a sample of the e-journals the library subscribes to – you will need your library login

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E-Books

This is just a sample of the e-books the library subscribes to – you will need your library login

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