Improving health literacy among older adults. Findings based on the IROHLA project

Health literacy has been defined as the degree to which people are able to access, understand, appraise, and communicate information to make informed decisions about their health. It is therefore essential to be able to engage with the demands of different health contexts and to stay healthy. The topic of health literacy is thus receiving growing political and scientific attention and is becoming increasingly important in Germany too. Results of a survey on health literacy in Germany that were published by the AOK's scientific research institute, WidO, in 2014, stress the need for health literacy improvement. These results are briefly summarized. At a European level, the IROHLA (Intervention Research on Health Literacy among Ageing population) project was started in December 2012. IROHLA is aimed at introducing evidence-based guidelines for policy and practice to improve health literacy among the ageing population in the member states of the European Union (EU). The project consortium is led by the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) and consists of 22 partners from nine EU member states. German partners in the project are the Federal Centre for Health Education (Bundeszentrale fur gesundheitliche Aufklarung-BZgA), the Federal Association of the AOK (AOK-Bundesverband), liveonline coaching, and Jacobs University Bremen. The purpose of this article is to present the major findings of the IROHLA project and to point out approaches to improving health literacy among older adults. A key aspect within IROHLA is the comprehensive approach, which targets multiple groups, i.e., individuals and their social environment, in addition to professionals and the health system.