The Health Literacy Centre Europe portal has been developed within the project “Intervention Research On Health Literacy among Ageing population” (IROHLA), a European research project on health literacy for older people. The project was funded by the European Union under the 7th Framework Programme.The project received financial support from the European Union through the 7th Framework Programme (grant agreement no. 305831).
Health literacy guideline
The main objective of IROHLA was to introduce evidence-based guidelines that cover relevant topics for both policy makers and health professionals to improve health literacy for older people in the EU countries and reduce health inequalities.
- We have assessed the quality and feasibility of a large number of interventions and practices that aim to improve health literacy for older people. After analysis and consultation, the researchers identified 20 key interventions. Relevant interventions were validated and if needed adjusted in order to make up a comprehensive approach to addressing the health literacy needs of older people in Europe. This set of interventions aims to provide solutions to health literacy problems through the contribution of many different actors – relatives, neighbours and friends, as well as healthcare workers, other professionals and decision makers.
- The IROHLA project produced a policy brief for EU Member States and guidelines for health literate organisations. These were presented during the 3rd European Health Literacy Conference on 17 November 2015 and can be found here.
HLCE has:
- A European focus, with sharing knowledge internationally, providing culturally sensitive information, which is of great value for countries where there is little history in developing health literacy related interventions
- Guidance on contextual factors: instead of ready-made solutions (which may not be applicable everywhere) information on contextual and organisational factors is available in order to help develop interventions in a scientifically sound way that matches the demands of the problem/situation.
- A Multi-sectoral approach to health literacy, bringing together knowledge from a wide range of specialities, like social medicine, psychology, communication, anthropology and also business sciences
IROHLA project partners and funding: follow up in HLCE
The IROHLA project was led by the University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG), with a project team consisting of 22 partners: academic institutions, health promotion organisations, network organisations for health promotion and older people’s rights, health insurance companies, as well as businesses operating in the health sector from all over Europe. The business partners mainly focused on innovations in digital technology. All these partners are involved in the development of the HLCE-portal.