Individual health literacy refers to a person's ability to find, understand, assess, and apply health information to make informed choices related to their own health.
Health literacy plays a significant role in people's health behaviours and enables them to use healthcare services sensibly. Health literacy is a prerequisite for shared decision-making and patient engagement in healthcare.
To enable patients to participate in decisions regarding treatment choices, they must have insight and knowledge about the consequences of various options and choices.
This applies to decisions related to lifestyle choices, disease prevention measures, self-management of illnesses, and the use of healthcare and nursing services.
The need for health literacy in the population is increasing, partly because modern medicine is becoming ever more complex and intricate. Navigating the healthcare system can be overwhelming and challenging for many, especially vulnerable groups.
The network has a Facebook group (facebook.com) where researchers, collaborators, private entities, and user organisations can join.
Ambition
The network is a platform for enhancing and advancing research in health literacy at Oslo Metropolitan University.
We provide space for scholarly discussions, foster interdisciplinary collaboration, and promote awareness of health literacy in the public sphere.
Collaboration
Network members come from various research groups within the Faculty of Health Sciences.
We also collaborate with healthcare institutions, municipalities, patient associations, professional associations, and private entities such as:
- Oslo Municipality
- the University of Oslo
- the Norwegian Medical Association
- the Norwegian Dental Association
- Sunnaas Hospital
- Akershus University Hospital
- Lovisenberg Diaconal University College
- Oslo University Hospital
- SINTEF
- the National Competence Service for Learning and Mastery in Health (NK LMH)
- the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI)
- the Norwegian Cancer Society (Kreftforeningen)
- Concussion Norway (Hjernerystelsesforeningen)
- the Norwegian Brain Council (Hjernerådet)
- the Association for Adapted Adult Education in Norway (Studieforbundet Funkis)
We also welcome collaborations with additional private entities and user organisations.
