Abstracts by keywords: national action plan
Since the beginning of 2018, Germany has also had a “National Action Plan to Strengthen Health Literacy” following the example of other countries. Created by an independent group of experts, the plan contains fifteen recommendations that relate to four major areas of action: everyday living environments, the healthcare system, life with chronic illness and research (Schaeffer et al. 2018). The following article first provides a brief overview of the current state of discussion on the topic of “health literacy” and then explains why an action plan makes sense and is necessary, what empirical foundations it is based on and what its content focuses. The recommendation for promoting research on health literacy is then presented and explained. It is shown that the National Action Plan can also be read as an agenda for new approaches and topics in health services research.
04.06.2018
On February 19, 2018, the “National Health Literacy Action Plan” (NAP) was presented to the public (Schaeffer et al., 2018). Following the example of other countries, it lists the most important challenges for improving the population's health education and promoting health communication among professional staff in educational and care facilities (see Figures 1 and 2) and then makes targeted recommendations. The project was financially supported by the Robert Bosch Foundation, the AOK Federal Association, Bielefeld University and the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. It is headed by Prof. Dr. Doris Schaeffer, Prof. Dr. Klaus Hurrelmann, Prof. Dr. Ullrich Bauer and Dr. Kai Kolpatzik. The following article addresses the first of the NAP's 15 recommendations, which focuses on strengthening health literacy in the education sector.