Publications by authors named "Saskia M De Gani"

[The concept of health literacy in transition].

Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz

January 2025

Health literacy is a central resource for health-related decisions. Since the 1970s, however, the understanding of this term has changed in several ways. Initially, health literacy was considered only from the point of view of individual competencies, but in recent decades it has evolved into a more contextual understanding.

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Background: Recently, the importance of social networks and other contextual factors in shaping health literacy of adolescents has gained recognition. However, research often simply refers to context without explicitly describing it. In this qualitative study, we aimed to explore how adolescents activate their (social) resources to develop and practice health literacy within a Swiss cantonal school health service program and in their everyday lives.

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One Health is an important approach to addressing health threats and promoting health through interdisciplinary health, policy, legislation and leadership research to achieve better human and animal health and better outcomes for the planet. The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered an urgent awareness of the need to develop innovative integrative solutions to address root causes of such threats to health, which requires collaboration across disciplines and amongst different sectors and communities. We explore how achieving the Quadripartite Organizations' One Health Joint Plan of Action can be supported by the concepts of 'One Health literacy' and 'One Health governance' and promote both academic and policy dialogue.

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Article Synopsis
  • The DocVISITguide was created to help patients prepare for doctor visits, aiming to improve communication and ensure they leave more informed.
  • A small-scale evaluation showed that most patients found the guide easy to use and effective in enhancing their understanding of their health.
  • While 82% of participants would use the guide again and 100% would recommend it, some expressed hesitation about presenting it to their doctors, suggesting that physicians should encourage its use.
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Background: We aimed to investigate the self-reported health status and behaviours of 7th-grade adolescents, associations with gender and educational track, as well as health issues addressed during routine school doctor consultations in Switzerland.

Methods: Data on health status and behaviours, specifically general well-being, stimulant and addictive substance use, bullying/violence, exercise, nutrition and health protection, and puberty/sexuality, were drawn from routinely collected self-assessment questionnaires from 1076 (of a total of 1126) students from 14 schools in the Swiss canton of Zug in 2020. Data on health issues addressed in school doctor consultations were collected by nine school doctors (for 595 individual consultations).

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Primary care organizations offer a suitable setting to promote organizational health literacy (OHL) since they are a crucial interface for patients and clients. However, a clear picture on the OHL situation in primary care is lacking. The aim of this study was to assess OHL in Swiss primary care organizations by evaluating (i) how they rate their level of OHL and which improvement measures they accordingly plan (organizational level), (ii) what knowledge and attitudes among health professionals in primary care regarding OHL exist (individual level) and (iii) how teams working in general practitioners' practices and a home care service organization differ regarding OHL (organizational and individual level).

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Organizational health literacy (OHL) is crucial for public health, in turn health care organizations play vital roles in improving populations' health literacy. Therefore, the aim of this qualitative study was to explore how the organizational health literacy self-assessment tool (OHL Self-AsseT) was implemented, used, and understood by primary care teams from a network of general practices and a Home Care Service Organization in Zurich, Switzerland. Reflexive thematic analysis with a constructivist orientation was used to analyze data from 19 interviews pre- and post-OHL Self-AsseT use.

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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 HLS-NAV measurement scale applied in the European Health Literacy Population Survey 2019-2021 (HLS). From December 2019 to January 2021, data on NAV-HL was collected in eight European countries.

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Article Synopsis
  • COVID-19 led to an "infodemic" of misinformation, making health literacy crucial for navigating accurate information during the pandemic.
  • A study in Switzerland showed that by winter 2020, over 63% of participants reported sufficient corona-specific health literacy, which increased over time, although many struggled to evaluate health information on the virus.
  • Television and the internet were the most used sources for information, but health professionals and authorities were more trusted, while social media was seen as the least reliable, with higher trust correlating with better health literacy.
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Managing health information and services is difficult for nearly half of the population in Switzerland. Low health literacy has been shown to result in poorer health and health outcomes as well as a higher utilization of health services. To date, studies on health literacy in Switzerland have focused on a national level.

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Mental health literacy (MHL) promises to be an important factor for public health by enabling people to take responsibility for their own mental health. To date, there is no measurement tool that allows the assessment of a comprehensive understanding of MHL as part of health literacy (HL). Nonetheless, the widely used Health Literacy Survey European Questionnaire 47 (HLS-EU-Q47) includes items assessing at least some MHL-aspects in the context of HL.

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Dealing with health information and taking care of one's own health are key aspects of health literacy and a difficulty for nearly half of the population in Europe. Limited health literacy often results in poorer health outcomes. Health literacy is a fundamental health determinant, and its improvement provides great potential for addressing public health challenges.

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