7.K. Round table: Approaching new public health frontiers: health literacy on a global level
Authors:   Organised by: EUPHA-HL, -PHMR, WHO, WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Literacy, Technical University of Munich (Germany), Global Health Literacy Academy (Denmark), Sciensano (Belgium),   Chair persons: Orkan Okan (EUPHA-HL), Nienke Schutte (Belgium)
Published: October 2024

This workshop will introduce the newly established WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Literacy (WHO CC HL) at TU Munich (TUM) in Germany and reflect on its goals and discuss the potential impact on European public health research, policy, and practice. With the launch of the WHO CC HL, TUM, WHO, and their collaborators, among which are the EUPHA Health Literacy Section, the International Health Literacy Association, and the Global Health Literacy Research Network, jointly aim at systematically developing health literacy as part of the WHO Sustainable Development and Well-being agenda. Health literacy represents the skills and attitudes to find, understand, appraise, and apply health information and services. Low health literacy is prevalent among all population and age groups and it is linked to worse health outcomes and health inequalities. Across the social gradient, people from low socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to have low health literacy, which is why the European Commission and WHO both highlighted the need to invest in health literacy and, in particular, in school health literacy. Two emerging fields of study include data generation and interventions. Both of which are highly critical to monitoring change and providing evidence-based data on population and system-level health literacy within and between countries. However, there are no health literacy monitoring systems in place on a global scale nor is there robust evaluation data on school-based interventions. These shortcomings will be addressed through the WHO CC HL at TUM. In this round table workshop with five key health literacy and public health experts, the main goal is to present the WHO CC HL and its roadmap for the next four years and critically discuss how the work can influence European and Global public health: Dr. Faten Ben Abdelaziz, WHO; Anastasia Kyoylu, WHO/Europe; Dr Kristine Sorensen, Global Health Literacy Academy; Dr. Charlotte Marchandise, EUPHA; Prof. Dr. Orkan Okan, WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Literacy at Technical University of Munich.

First, the chair will provide a short introduction to the WHO CC HL and will, together with the co-chair, facilitate the following panel discussion. The panel members will share a short 2-to-3-minute statement from their point of view in relation to planned activities of the WHO CC HL and highlight synergies to public health and health literacy development. Following the short statement, the chairs will prepare individual questions for each panellist and engage them in a discussion, which shortly after will open towards the audience for them to participate actively with the panellists in a 30-minutes discussion.

Key messages

• The round table workshop will introduce the newly established WHO CC HL, highlight its goals and impact on public health, and highlight collaboration opportunities.

• The key experts will reflect about the WHO CC HL from their unique standpoints and reveal new perspectives on the way forward and how the work can benefit from ongoing public health initiatives.

Speakers/Panelists

Faten Ben Abdelaziz

WHO, Geneva, Switzerland

Anastasia Koylyu

WHO, Copenhagen, Denmark

Kristine Sørensen

Global Health Literacy Academy, Risskov, Denmark

Charlotte Marchandise

EUPHA

Orkan Okan

Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany