FOR 2959:  Health literacy in early childhood allergy prevention: parental competencies and public health context in a shifting evidence landscape (HELICAP)

• Subject Area: Medicine
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 409800133

Strengthening health literacy (HL) has become a priority public health action field in Germany. This political claim has gained momentum by evidence linking higher levels of HL to better health outcomes and research showing that more than half of the German population has difficulty dealing with health information and navigating the health care system. In contemporary public health research, HL is mostly operationalized as knowledge, competence, and motivation of an individual person to access, understand, appraise and apply health information to make good health-related decisions. Several challenges arise from this way of framing HL. There is a need (i)to recognize personal needs and limitations not only of the general population but also of specific target groups such as populations at risk, (ii)to consider the complex social, ethical, ecological, and systemic forces affecting health decisions, (iii) to further clarify the role of emerging scientific evidence and professional expertise within public health efforts, (iv) to advance the measurement of HL and (v) to address uncertain evidence and recommendations. The DFG research group HELICAP uses early childhood allergy prevention (ECAP) and COVID-19 in children with allergies (COVICAL) to investigate the named challenges. Both ECAP and COVICAL are characterized by substantial uncertainty. Based on a modified conceptual model of HL in which social, environmental, situational and personal determinants are emphasized HELICAP investigates HL in seven distinct work packages, coordinated by the Scientific Coordination Center (SCC). The SCC implements the joint work programme of the HELICAP group according to three main tasks:(1) Facilitating stakeholder participation, aided by a Public Health Engagement and Involvement Board (PHEIB), a Scientific Public Health Advisory Board (SPHAB) and the continuation of the already established task force “Participatory Research” (TFPR). (2) Conducting accompanying research through conversation analysis as well as participant observation of the interdisciplinary discourse during board meetings and evaluation of HELICAP workshops and (3) Synthesis and integration of findings including a synopsis of educational and system-level interventions as HELICAP becomes more interventional in the second funding phase. Further, we will attempt to specify the HL model already modified in the first funding phase for our HL-use cases ECAP and COVICAL. HELICAP workshops, boardmeetings, early career researcher workshops and the TFPR meetings will ensure that space is continuously provided for interdisciplinary scientific discourse.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• International Connection: United Kingdom

Projects

• Coordination Funds (Applicant Apfelbacher, Ph.D., Christian )
• Doing health – an ethnographic study on nurturing practices from pregnancy through the first year of childhood (DOING HEALTH) (Applicant Holmberg, Christine )
• Early childhood allergy prevention: awareness, information-seeking behavior, and information needs among different parent groups (Applicant Dierks, Marie-Luise )
• Health- and social care institutions as providers of health information on early childhood allergy prevention for parents: qualitative implementation study (USER NEEDS) (Applicant Lander, Jonas )
• How do health professionals translate available evidence on early childhood allergy prevention into health-literacy responsive practice? (Health Professionals) (Applicant Brandstetter, Susanne )
• Interventions for the prevention of childhood allergies, and for promoting allergy-prevention related and COVID-19 related health literacy: living systematic reviews (Living Systematic Review) (Applicant Apfelbacher, Ph.D., Christian )
• Management of evidence and conflict of interest in guidelines on early childhood allergy prevention and child nutrition (Conflict of Interest) (Applicant Bitzer, Eva Maria )
• Midwives as providers of HL-sensitive counselling on early childhood allergy prevention: co-design of an educational intervention (Health Professionals) (Applicants Fillenberg, Barbara ;  von Sommoggy, Julia )
• Parental health literacy and prevention, diagnostics and treatment of childhood allergy (Epidemiology) (Applicant Brandstetter, Susanne )
• Structural modelling and assessment of health literacy in allergy prevention of new parents (Measurement) (Applicant Wirtz, Markus Antonius )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Christian Apfelbacher, Ph.D.