Project Details
Projekt
How do health professionals translate available evidence on early childhood allergy prevention into health-literacy responsive practice? (Health Professionals)
Applicant
Privatdozentin Dr. Susanne Brandstetter, since 10/2021
Subject Area
Public Health, Healthcare Research, Social and Occupational Medicine
Term
from 2019 to 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 409800133
Pediatricians, general practitioners (GPs) and midwives are in regular contact with expectant and new parents. Research has shown that preventive counseling by health professionals can be effective in improving patients’ health literacy (HL) and health behavior. Providing effective advice on early childhood allergy prevention (ECAP) relies on two aspects: First, health professionals need to keep informed on the dynamically changing research evidence on ECAP, as well as consider popular misconceptions and fears, and to translate this knowledge into clear recommendations to advise their patients’ families (knowledge translation). Second, they need to know and employ counseling techniques that respond to parental HL needs and create a HL-supportive practice setting (health literacy-responsive care). Due to a lack of research in this area, it is paramount to better understand how evidence is translated by health professionals into practical knowledge, to understand their views and practices with regard to ECAP and HL, and to explore barriers and facilitators which they may encounter in their daily practice. The objective of WP3 is to explore a) how German health professionals in ambulatory care take up, make sense of and transfer research evidence on ECAP to their patients’ families and b) how they consider HL challenges in their ECAP counselling and organization of their practice setting. A qualitative exploratory research design was chosen, complemented by developing and piloting a standardized questionnaire in the third project year. Tasks (1) and (2): In order to explore the health professionals’ views on ECAP knowledge translation and HL-responsive care, semi-standardized qualitative interviews will be conducted with pediatricians/GPs (1) and midwives (2). Task (3): In order to contrast and enrich data from (1) and (2), qualitative expert interviews will be conducted with health professionals who hold a functional position within an organization specialized in allergy/HL, and who can provide a superordinate perspective. Task (4): Based on the results from (1) to (3), a standardized questionnaire and study design will be developed for assessing perceived barriers, enablers and challenges of health professionals in ECAP and HL-responsive care. A pilot study will be conducted for evaluating the usability of the questionnaire in a large-scale survey. WP3 focuses on the healthcare environment shaping parental HL in ECAP. It is linked to “WP2-Living Systematic Review”, which provides the up-to-date research evidence on ECAP, and to “WP1-Conflict of Interest”, with regard to the relevance of COI in guideline generation for health professionals’ care practice. “WP4-User Needs” addresses the parental views on HL in ECAP, therefore, mutual consultation is planned when developing the interview guides and for triangulating the results.
DFG Programme
Research Units
Co-Investigator
Professorin Dr. Julika Loss
Ehemalige Antragstellerin
Dr. Janina Curbach, until 10/2021
