TY - JOUR
T1 - Health literacy competency requirements for health professionals
T2 - a Delphi consensus study in Taiwan
AU - Tsai, Han Yi
AU - Lee, Shoou Yih D.
AU - Coleman, Cliff
AU - Sørensen, Kristine
AU - Tsai, Tzu I.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2024/12
Y1 - 2024/12
N2 - Background: Cumulative evidence supports the importance of health literacy in determining the quality of healthcare delivery and outcomes. To enhance health literacy competencies among professionals and alleviate healthcare barriers owing to patients’ inadequate health literacy, evidence-based health literacy competency guidelines are needed for the development of health professionals’ training curricula. The aim of this study was to validate and refine a set of health literacy competencies, including knowledge, attitude, and skills of health professionals, and to prioritize the importance of health literacy practices among healthcare professionals. Methods: We employed a consensus-building approach that utilized a modified three-round Delphi process conducted in 2017. An online Delphi panel was assembled, comprising 20 Taiwanese health literacy experts from diverse fields such as medicine, nursing, public health, language, and communication. A set of health literacy competencies previously identified and validated by an international panel of health literacy experts was cross-culturally translated. Results: After three rounds of ratings and modifications, a consensus agreement was reached on 42 of 62 health literacy competencies, including 12 of 24 knowledge items, 9 of 11 attitude items, and 21 of 27 skill items. Of the 32 health literacy practices, “avoidance using medical jargon,” “speaking slowly and clearly with patients,” and “using analogies and examples” were deemed most important by the panelists. Conclusions: The Delphi panel’s consensus helped to identify a set of core health literacy competencies that could serve as measurable learning objectives to guide the development of a health literacy curriculum for health professionals. The prioritized health literacy practices can be employed as indicators of health literacy competencies that health professionals should learn and routinely use in clinical settings.
AB - Background: Cumulative evidence supports the importance of health literacy in determining the quality of healthcare delivery and outcomes. To enhance health literacy competencies among professionals and alleviate healthcare barriers owing to patients’ inadequate health literacy, evidence-based health literacy competency guidelines are needed for the development of health professionals’ training curricula. The aim of this study was to validate and refine a set of health literacy competencies, including knowledge, attitude, and skills of health professionals, and to prioritize the importance of health literacy practices among healthcare professionals. Methods: We employed a consensus-building approach that utilized a modified three-round Delphi process conducted in 2017. An online Delphi panel was assembled, comprising 20 Taiwanese health literacy experts from diverse fields such as medicine, nursing, public health, language, and communication. A set of health literacy competencies previously identified and validated by an international panel of health literacy experts was cross-culturally translated. Results: After three rounds of ratings and modifications, a consensus agreement was reached on 42 of 62 health literacy competencies, including 12 of 24 knowledge items, 9 of 11 attitude items, and 21 of 27 skill items. Of the 32 health literacy practices, “avoidance using medical jargon,” “speaking slowly and clearly with patients,” and “using analogies and examples” were deemed most important by the panelists. Conclusions: The Delphi panel’s consensus helped to identify a set of core health literacy competencies that could serve as measurable learning objectives to guide the development of a health literacy curriculum for health professionals. The prioritized health literacy practices can be employed as indicators of health literacy competencies that health professionals should learn and routinely use in clinical settings.
KW - Consensus study
KW - Health literacy competency
KW - Health professionals
KW - Modified Delphi
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85186585019&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/s12909-024-05198-4
DO - 10.1186/s12909-024-05198-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 38429669
AN - SCOPUS:85186585019
SN - 1472-6920
VL - 24
JO - BMC Medical Education
JF - BMC Medical Education
IS - 1
M1 - 209
ER -
