Purpose
Starting from maternity care, investigate definitions and conceptual models for collective health literacy and describe the concept in practice, and develop a tool to assess collective health literacy. 

Description
Two phases: Phase 1 involved an international systematic review of collective health literacy and its application in analyses of patient education for groups with ethnic minority background (completed). Phase 2 comprises concept analysis, exploratory analysis and practice description and development of a tool; this phase is planned to start late 2025. 

Partner
Sydney Health Literacy Lab.  

Read more:

Muscat DM, Gessler D, Ayre J, Norgaard O, Heuck IR, Haar S, Maindal HT. Seeking a deeper understanding of ‘distributed health literacy’: A systematic review. Health Expectations. 2022;25(3):856-68.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hex.13450

Andersen AMJ, Jervelund SS, Maindal HT, Hempler NF

Acquisition, application, and distribution of health literacy from culturally sensitive type 2 diabetes education among Arabic-Speaking migrants in Denmark: A longitudinal qualitative analysis, Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences. 2023; 38  (2):523-535

Purpose

This PhD project (2026-2029) aims to map existing knowledge and practices in the home-to-early childhood education and care (ECEC) transition in a Nordic context and to co-create a complex intervention to enhance interprofessional collaboration during this transition.

Description

While most Danish children thrive, a substantial number, experience mental health problems. Emotional and behavioral difficulties in childhood often trace back to infancy. The home-to-ECEC transition is a vulnerable period characterized by varying needs for support and collaboration. There is a need for intervention research, examining collaborative practices and developing new interventions to ensure relevant, feasible, and sustainable changes in practice aimed at supporting families in vulnerable positions.

This project will examine:

• How, for whom, and under what circumstances do interprofessional collaboration and knowledge sharing between health visitors and ECEC educators influence children’s start in ECEC and the provision of early preventive support for children and families?
• How can researchers, practitioners, and other stakeholders co-design a feasible intervention to strengthen interprofessional collaboration during the home-to-ECEC transition, providing early and targeted support for children and families in vulnerable situations?
• What can be learned from a small-scale prototype of the co-designed intervention, and how can these findings inform the refinement of its components and underlying programme theory?

The project will be guided by the 2021 British Medical Research Council (MRC) framework, which provides overarching guidance for developing complex interventions

Partners

• CASCADE – Centre for Children’s Social Care Research and Development at Cardiff University, United Kingdom
• Center for Bedre Børneliv 

Project description coming soon

Purpose
Map pregnant women's health literacy and organizational health literacy in Danish maternity care. 

Description
A PhD project (2021–2025) that produced six scientific publications. The results showed that pregnant women have very different strengths and challenges related to health literacy and digital health literacy, strongly linked to demographic, socioeconomic and health factors. Health professionals in Danish maternity care experienced significant barriers related to health literacy in the system. These weaknesses formed the basis for the HeLP3 project. 

Partners
Departments of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Aarhus University Hospital and Regional Hospital Viborg. 

Read more:

• https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/8/4449
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36413879/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36123636/
• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/28355245.2023.2257129

Purpose
Evaluate implementation, adoption and usability of CHAT in practice and examine the extent to which the dialogue tool can increase health professionals' understanding of citizens' individual health literacy. 

Description
Based on qualitative focus group interviews with health professionals (nurses, physiotherapists and occupational therapists) delivering rehabilitation courses to people with chronic illness, the study illustrated CHAT's potential as a structured and non‑stigmatizing tool to identify individual health literacy needs and the organizational and practical factors that promote or limit its use. The project was conducted between 2018 and 2020. 

Partner
Randers Rehabilitation Unit (Randers Municipality). 

Read more:

• Jensen NH, Aaby A, Ryom K, Maindal HT. A CHAT about health literacy – a qualitative feasibility study of the Conversational Health Literacy Assessment Tool (CHAT) in a Danish municipal healthcare centre (2020)
• Jensen NH, Aaby A, Ryom K, Maindal HT. CHAT - Et redskab til dialog om sundhedskompetence (2019)