Tell us about your project!

While there is an increasing digitalization of healthcare services, there is an increase in social inequality in health and quality of life. Complexity and systemic demands in a changing society can act as barriers for welfare recipients and can negatively affect people’s individual health literacy and skills necessary to function and to manage health. The overall aim of this project is to gain knowledge about health literacy in the population living with long-term conditions in the context of the digital welfare state, to contribute to the development of health care transformation and health strategies.

The project forms part of the national initiative by the health directory of Norway: kartlegging av den norske befolkningens helsekompetanse, in line with the European initiative (M-POHL) «Measuring population and organizational health literacy» by WHO. The project employs quantitative and qualitative methods including psychometrics, and statistical procedures exploring associations between health literacy measures and demographical and social factors. The project also explores individual health literacy from the perspective of people with rare disorders by the help of focus group interviews. The results will discuss factors that contribute to health literacy friendly organizations and help reducing navigation complexity.