Jürgen M. Pelikan

Gesundheit Österreich GmbH | GÖG · Gesundheit und Gesellschaft

Background: For improving health literacy (HL) by national and international public health policy, measuring population HL by a comprehensive instrument is needed. A short instrument, the HLS19-Q12 based on the HLS-EU-Q47, was developed, translated, applied, and validated in 17 countries in the WHO European Region. Methods: For factorial validit...

To manoeuvre a complex and fragmented health care system, people need sufficient navigational health literacy (NAV-HL). The objective of this study was to validate the HLS19-NAV measurement scale applied in the European Health Literacy Population Survey 2019–2021 (HLS19). From December 2019 to January 2021, data on NAV-HL was collected in eight Eur...

Background Theoretical and empirical studies indicate that a lack of transparency and highly complexity makes it difficult for patients to navigate healthcare systems. This requires the competence to access, understand, appraise, and apply information about the healthcare system, its organizations and proceedings, i.e., navigational health literacy...

Background: Sufficient communicative health literacy (COM-HL) is important for patients actively participating in dialogue with physicians, expressing their needs and desires for treatment, and asking clarifying questions. There is a lack of instruments combining communication and HL proficiency. Hence, the aim was to establish an instrument with...

(1) Background: Health literacy is considered a personal asset, important for meeting health-related challenges of the 21st century. Measures for assisting students’ health literacy development and improving health outcomes can be implemented in the school setting. First, this is achieved by providing students with learning opportunities to foster...

Health-Promoting Hospitals (HPH) as a concept, a project, a network, and a movement has its roots in the Ottawa Charter (WHO, Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, 1986). With its call for “reorienting health services,” the Ottawa Charter implicitly diagnosed that health services had a too-narrow mandate and mission on treatment of diseases, and the...

he Russian language is the eighth most spoken language in the world. Russian speakers reside in Russia, across the former Soviet Union republics, and comprise one of the largest populations of international migrants. However, little is known about their health literacy (HL) and there is limited research on HL instruments in the Russian language. Th...

Settings are defined by the World Health Organization (1998) as “the place or social context in which people engage in daily activities in which environmental, organizational, and personal factors interact to affect health and well-being.” Such settings range from small-scale home/family to (international) organizations and large cities and thus di...

Behind the terms ‘primary care’ and ‘salutogenesis’ are visions, values, and structures. Primary care, understood as the first contact point to medical care, operates at the interface between the social and health systems, the patient with his or her family and professional environment, and the local population. Primary (health) care is envisioned...

This open access book is a thorough update and expansion of the 2017 edition of The Handbook of Salutogenesis, responding to the rapidly growing salutogenesis research and application arena. Revised and updated from the first edition are background and historical chapters that trace the development of the salutogenic model of health and flesh out...

Background/Research Topics/Partner Countries In Europe, interest has grown in measuring the health literacy (HL) of the adult population in relation to public health, disease prevention, and health promotion to inform health policy in the new millennium, partly building on a longer tradition of measuring HL, but with a focus on patients, in the US...

Concerning the determinants of health literacy (HL) mostly socio-demographic or -economic factors have been considered, much less so psychological factors such as self-efficacy. To date, it has mostly been considered to explain the relationship of HL and health outcomes. However, self-efficacy could also be an important determinant for HL. This stu...

Self-management education (SME) is a key determinant of diabetes treatment outcomes. While SME programs are often adapted for implementation, the impact of adaptations on diabetes SME effectiveness is not well documented. This study evaluated the impact of the implementation fidelity of diabetes SME programs on program effectiveness, exploring whic...

Der Beitrag diskutiert eine breite Palette von Themen und soziologischen Perspektiven auf Gesundheitsförderung und Krankheitsprävention. Ausgehend von einer Grundunterscheidung zwischen angewandten und reflexiv-kritischen Positionen werden zunächst Unterschiede und Gemeinsamkeiten von Krankheitsprävention und Gesundheitsförderung dargestellt. Aus e...

Background Complex and intransparent structures are the main reasons why it is difficult for patients to navigate the healthcare system. Thus, patients need specific competencies to deal with health information related to orientation and finding the right pathways through the healthcare system. The aim was therefore to develop an internationally ap...

Das Forschungsfeld Health Literacy befindet sich in stetigem Wandel. Es vereint unterschiedliche, teils widersprüchliche Zugänge und Perspektiven und bringt Akteur*innen aus diversen Fachdisziplinen zusammen, die verschiedenste Absichten verfolgen. Zu nennen sind hier beispielhaft Professionelle im medizinischen Kontext, die an einer effizienteren...

Background The HLS-EU study in 2011 demonstrated for 8 EU Member States that there exists limited comprehensive health literacy for considerable proportions of the general population, that there is a social gradient for health literacy and that limited health literacy has problematic consequences for healthy lifestyles, self-reported health and uti...

Background Due to the digital transformation in late modern society, digital (or e-) health literacy (DHL) is becoming increasingly relevant for people to take health related decisions. Yet despite its importance for evidence-based policy, very few tools have been developed to measure DHL, and even fewer studies have measured DHL in general populat...

Due to their rapid expansion and complexity, it is increasingly difficult for patients to orient themselves in health care systems. Therefore, patients require a high degree of health literacy, or more precisely, navigation health literacy (HL-NAV). The actual extent of HL-NAV of patients and citizens is still largely unknown due to the lack of ade...

Zusammenfassung Mehr als die Hälfte der deutschen Bevölkerung hat Schwierigkeiten im Umgang mit Gesundheitsinformationen. Es ist eine wichtige Aufgabe der Versorgungsforschung zu untersuchen, wie sich die Professionen und Organisationen des Gesundheitssystems dieser Herausforderung stellen können. Die vorliegende Kurzfassung des DNVF Memorandums Ge...

Zusammenfassung Mehr als die Hälfte der deutschen Bevölkerung hat Schwierigkeiten im Umgang mit Gesundheitsinformationen. Es ist eine wichtige Aufgabe der Versorgungsforschung zu untersuchen, wie sich die Professionen und Organisationen des Gesundheitssystems dieser Herausforderung stellen können. Das DNVF Memorandums Gesundheitskompetenz (Teil 1)...

This chapter provides an overview of health literacy measurement initiatives with a focus on the European Health Literacy Survey (HLS-EU) - describing where measuring population health literacy started, where it currently is, and providing an outlook to the upcoming European HL survey. In the first part of the chapter, the methodology and the main...

This report provides an overview of Austria's approaches to improve population health literacy (HL). The report suggests: a) research can trigger health policy responses to improve HL; b) linking HL improvement to other reform agendas can boost effectiveness, and c) coordination is required for continuously and systematically working towards better...

Background: Health literacy concerns the ability of citizens to meet the complex demands of health in modern society. Data on the distribution of health literacy in general populations and how health literacy impacts health behavior and general health remains scarce. The present study aims to investigate the prevalence of health literacy levels an...

Health literacy (HL) matters for health of people and for use and results of health care. Therefore knowledge on HL is relevant for evidence based health policy. But there is evidence on considerable variation of distributions and associations of HL between European countries. Furthermore HL is impacted by health promotion and health care policy in...

The first European comparative survey of population health literacy (HL), HLS-EU, triggered a lot of health policy and health systems responses. In the sense of “What doesn’t get measured doesn’t get done”, data seem important to capture the attention of decision makers and to support evidence-informed policy and practice. This is one of the reason...

Background The European Health Literacy Survey (HLS-EU) demonstrated that in many European countries a considerable proportion of the population has limited health literacy (HL), that there is a social gradient for HL and that HL is associated with use of health services. Furthermore research mostly from the US also showed that HL of patients has d...

Abstract Although health literacy has long been a focus of attention in the WHO European Region, survey evidence in 2011 of eight Member States indicated that more than 47% of the adult population had suboptimal personal health literacy. Initiatives to prioritize health literacy in public policies include the WHO Shanghai Declaration, Health 2020,...

Aaron Antonovsky advanced the concept of salutogenesis almost four decades ago (Antonovsky, Health, Stress and Coping. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 1979; Unravelling the Mystery of Health. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 1987). Salutogenesis posits that life experiences shape the sense of coherence (SOCthat helps to mobilize resources to cope wi...

The Health Promotion Administration of Taiwan launched an integrative certification initiative in 2016 to streamline a plural system of certifications of health promotion in hospitals. It endeavored to replace original certifications, thereby establishing the proposal of a self-assessment instrument to aid in this integration. This study aimed to v...

Health literacy (HL) comprises a set of personal competences but depends also on characteristics of health-care systems and services that enable or hinder the usage of adequate health information for health-related decisions. With increasing evidence for its importance in health, there is also a growing interest in measuring HL. The Action Network...

Background/research question:: In the health literacy (HL) discourse there is debate about the ways by which HL is impacting health. Three different, logically non-exclusive hypotheses are proposed: (a) HL as a specific, direct, social determinant of health; (b) HL as a mediator between other determinants and health; and (c) HL as a moderator of t...

Background: Health literacy (HL) is defined as the ability to process health-related information to make decisions to maintain health and improve quality of life. A growing number of studies demonstrate that people with lower HL are less likely to use preventive services but more likely to use curative, emergency, or hospital care. Objective: This...

The International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) Position Statement on Health Literacy provides an overview of existing evidence and continuing debate on health literacy. Developed by the IUHPE Global Working Group on Health Literacy, including experts from around the globe, the Statement provides a basis for discussion and advoca...

Objective: Present and discuss the development and basic structure of a multilevel approach to strengthen patient and family engaged care, "The New Haven Recommendations on partnering with patients, families and citizens to enhance performance and quality in health promoting hospitals and health services". Methods: A generic literature review wa...

Background: Health literacy is an important health promotion concern and recently children and adolescents have been the focus of increased academic attention. To assess the health literacy of this population, researchers have been focussing on developing instruments to measure their health literacy. Compared to the wider availability of instrumen...

p>Background: Diabetes self-management education (DSME) is generally considered to be a key determinant of the treatment outcomes and related costs of diabetes mellitus. While DSME programmes generally have positive outcomes, their effects may depend on certain factors, such as the type of programmes provided and patients’ level of health literacy...

Background Health literacy (HL) is defined as the ability to process health related information and reflects the fit between personal competences and situational demands. A growing number of HL research demonstrates for low HL negative effects on medication adherence and health status and also effects on over-utilization of health services. However...

The role of health-related behaviors in the association between age and health literacy has not been well-elucidated. The present cross-sectional study evaluated the interactions between age and health-related behaviors in a 942 women in Taiwan between February and October 2013. Women aged 18–78 years were randomly sampled and recruited from the na...

Following publication of this article [1], it has come to our attention that one of the authors has had their name misspelt. “Ullich Bauer” should actually be read as “Ullrich Bauer”. The original article has been updated to reflect this.

Background Children and young people constitute a core target group for health literacy research and practice: during childhood and youth, fundamental cognitive, physical and emotional development processes take place and health-related behaviours and skills develop. However, there is limited knowledge and academic consensus regarding the abilities...

Zusammenfassung Gesundheitskompetenz (GK) wird zunehmend als umfassendes und relationales Konzept verstanden, d.h. sowohl persönliche wie organisationale GK kann gemessen und verbessert werden. Aufbauend auf 10 Merkmalen der Gesundheitskompetenten Krankenbehandlungsorganisation des Institute of Medicine (IOM) hat ein Wiener Team ein umfassendes Mod...

Über welche Kompetenzen müssen Menschen heute verfügen, um Krankheiten erfolgreich zu bewältigen oder - besser noch - zu vermeiden und um ihre Gesundheit zu erhalten und zu fördern? Angesichts eines komplexer werdenden Gesundheitssystems wird diese Frage international und inzwischen auch im deutschsprachigen Raum unter dem Begriff „Health Literacy"...

Über welche Kompetenzen müssen Menschen heute verfügen, um Krankheiten erfolgreich zu bewältigen oder - besser noch - zu vermeiden und um ihre Gesundheit zu erhalten und zu fördern? Angesichts eines komplexer werdenden Gesundheitssystems wird diese Frage international und inzwischen auch im deutschsprachigen Raum unter dem Begriff „Health Literacy"...

Über welche Kompetenzen müssen Menschen heute verfügen, um Krankheiten erfolgreich zu bewältigen oder - besser noch - zu vermeiden und um ihre Gesundheit zu erhalten und zu fördern? Angesichts eines komplexer werdenden Gesundheitssystems wird diese Frage international und inzwischen auch im deutschsprachigen Raum unter dem Begriff „Health Literacy"...

Health literacy (HL) is an important and malleable determinant, mediator or moderator of health. In healthcare, HL is relevant for the quality of treatment decisions and outcomes. HL – understood as the relation between individual abilities and system demands – can be promoted by adapting demands such as the quality of information and communication...

The application of salutogenesis in curative settings is specific, since it is about implementing salutogenesis into a territory which is still predominantly dominated by the paradigm of pathogenesis. But a case can be made that health care and its different curative settings would profit by integrating the principles of salutogenesis into their qu...

Der Beitrag diskutiert eine breite Palette von Themen und soziologischen Perspektiven auf Gesundheitsförderung und Krankheitsprävention. Ausgehend von einer Grundunterscheidung zwischen angewandten und reflexiv-kritischen Positionen werden zunächst Unterschiede und Gemeinsamkeiten von Krankheitsprävention und Gesundheitsförderung dargestellt. Aus e...

This chapter is concerned with the difference of measuring health literacy of general population for purposes of public health as differentiated from measuring personal health literacy of individuals within health care services. The evolution of concept, measurement and empirical research of health literacy in the last decades is discussed, and the...

This chapter is concerned with the difference of measuring health literacy of general population for purposes of public health as differentiated from measuring personal health literacy of individuals within health care services. The evolution of concept, measurement and empirical research of health literacy in the last decades is discussed, and the...

Supplementary data related to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.je.2016.09.005.

Background Health literacy has been increasingly recognized as one of the most important social determinants for health. However, an appropriate and comprehensive assessment tool is not available in many Asian countries. This study validates a comprehensive health literacy survey tool European health literacy questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q47) for the gene...

Background: Health literacy (HL) is an important and malleable determinant of health. In healthcare, HL is relevant for the quality of treatment decisions and outcomes. HL – understood as the relation between individual abilities and system demands – can a.o. be promoted by adapting these demands, especially the quality of information and communica...

Health literacy survey was carried out at the end of 2014 in the context of preparation of implementation strategy of the Program Health 2020 in the Czech Republic. The survey was conducted by the National Institute of Public Health with financial support from the Ministry of Health and the Czech WHO office. Sociologica survey replicated comparativ...

We relate Antonovsky’s concepts of salutogenesis (Antonovsky, 1979; 1993) to the hospital setting. We argue that salutogenesis is particularly challenging to this setting—and vice versa. However, we also demonstrate that salutogenesis, if understood as one dimension of hospital quality, could considerably contribute to the health gains of both pati...

Background: Health literacy is an important determinant of health, but national health literacy levels are known for only some European countries. This study aims to examine to what extent national health literacy levels can be estimated based on publicly available census data. Method: Multivariate models were used to predict two types of health...

Wie kann Krankheitsprävention aus soziologischer Perspektive verstanden werden? Wie hat sich Krankheitsprävention als soziales Thema entwickelt? Wo setzen Strukturen, Mechanismen und Praktiken der Krankheitsprävention in sozialen Systemen an? Was ist kritisch zur Krankheitsprävention zu sagen? Prävenire bedeutet wörtlich genommen, künftig erwartbar...

Der Eintrag führt in das Konzept des Gesundheitsfördernden Krankenhauses als Ansatz zur Gestaltung eines für die Gesundheitsförderung wesentlichen Settings ein und stellt die Umsetzung des Konzeptes im deutschsprachigen Raum vor. Link zum Volltext: http://www.leitbegriffe.bzga.de/alphabetisches-verzeichnis/gesundheitsfoerderung-und-krankenhaus/

Der Eintrag gibt einen Einblick in die Organisationsentwicklung als Methode der Gesundheitsförderung. Dabei wird von den Annahmen ausgegangen, dass das Konzept der Gesundheitsförderung auf die Gestaltung der gesellschaftlichen Voraussetzungen von Gesundheit ausgerichtet ist und dass diese Voraussetzungen in einem hohen Maße in und durch Organisatio...

Data on health literacy (HL) in the population is limited for Asian countries. This study aimed to test the validity of the Mandarin version of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q) for use in the general public in Taiwan. Multistage stratification random sampling resulted in a sample of 2989 people aged 15 years and above. Th...