IDEAHL: Reviewing best practices for Digital Health Literacy interventions

Background: In the attempt to empower EU citizens in using digital tools to improve own
health and well-being a HorizonEurope project has been established. IDEAHL (Improving
Digital Empowerment for Active Healthy Living) is focusing on developing and testing new
models of digital health literacy ((d)HL) interventions through the co-creation of a
comprehensive EU (d)HL Strategy. Reviewing literature on health literacy (HL) and (d)HL
interventions in EU and beyond, became the initial phase of IDEAHL
Purpose: Reviewing key factors, drivers, barriers, and best practice on HL and (d)HL
interventions from literature
Method: Through a participatory scoping review process among IDEAHL´s 14 partners (10
EU Member States), the review was conducted. Ten electronic databases were searched,
supplemented with grey literature. Covidence was used for managing references based on
inclusion criteria that embrace key factors, (drivers, barriers, effectiveness, and best practice)
on HL and d(HL) interventions
Findings: Among articles meeting the inclusion criteria, five represent interventions at
political level, 14 at organizational level, 23 at group level and 34 at the individual level.
Key factors for interventions involved training of healthcare professionals, patients,
caregivers, or others or involved tailored communicative initiatives. Mental health literacy
was the most dominant outcome across the identified interventions targeting adolescents.
Only few interventions addressed (d)HL still, most interventions included use of digital tools
Conclusion
Great diversity in key factors for HL and (d)HL interventions were found, still this review
provides an overview of core tendencies. More research is needed to determine best practices
of improving (d)HL
Keywords: Health literacy, Digital Health Literacy, Mapping Health Literacy, Scoping
Review. Best practice. Europe