About the project
This project will develop and evaluate a health literacy partnership health promotion intervention (users, hospital, municipalities, university) in the context of COPD.
Health literacy refers to the personal and relational factors that affect a person’s ability to acquire, understand and use information about health and health services. Thus, health literacy may be a key mechanism to change in health outcomes.
Objectives
This project aims at developing a health literacy intervention through co-creation between users, researchers, multidisciplinary specialist- and community health care providers of acceptable and feasible solutions, and implementing the intervention for effectiveness and fidelity through a randomized control trial.
Outcomes
The primary outcome is hospital re-admissions for COPD and the secondary outcomes are health literacy, e-health literacy, self-management competence, disease-related quality of life, physical function, health-related quality of life, psychological stress and economic health costs.
Background
COPD is one of the most common chronic diseases, and is associated with multiple symptoms (i.e. breathlessness, anxiety, depression, fatigue, pain, insomnia), as well as reduced quality of life. They may have difficulty with physical activities and coping with activities of daily living and exacerbations that often lead to hospitalization and readmissions. Barriers to access to self-management programs, economic problems, communication difficulties and poor relationships with their health care providers may result in COPD patients being unable to obtain adequate health care. Moreover, people with COPD often have poor adherence to treatment with little understanding of recommended treatments. Thus, people with COPD are at high risk for experiencing health literacy challenges.
The study is performed in three phases:
- In phase 1, a need assessment study with focus groups of patient with copd and health care professionals and a cross sectional study of patient with COPD are performed in order to identify health literacy needs.
- In phase 2, the results from phase 1 are discussed between users, researchers, multidisciplinary specialist- and community health care providers to find acceptable and feasible solutions and develop a health literacy intervention.
- In phase 3, the health literacy intervention is tested out in a randomized control trial in people with copd.
Financing
The postdoc position has been made possible by funding from the Norwegian Extra Foundation for Health and Rehabilitation through the Norwegian organization for heart and lung (LHL). Further, LDS and the four sites (Grunnerløkka, St. Hanshaugen, Gamle Oslo and Sagene) in the community health care service have agreed to fund two nurses with 50% positions for a two year period.
More over, extra funding has been given from the department of health sciences, University of Oslo and Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital.
Cooperation partners
- The department of Health sciences, University of Oslo
- Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital
- Four sites in the community health care service : Grunnerløkka, St. Hanshaugen, Gamle Oslo and Sagene
- Users with copd
Research collaboration
- The department of health sciences, university of Oslo
- Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital
- Sørlandet Hospital
- Deakin University in Melbourne Australia
Start - finish
2017-2020