Health literacy
Authors: Rondia Karin , Adriaenssens Jef , Van den Broucke Stephan , Kohn Laurence 
Published: January 2025

1 HEALTH LITERACY 9 -- 1.1 HEALTH LITERACY: AN EVOLVING CONCEPT 9 -- 1.2 MEASURING HEALTH LITERACY 11 -- 1.3 HEALTH LITERACY AND PUBLIC HEALTH 12 -- 1.4 EXISTING RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HEALTH LITERACY POLICIES IN EUROPE 13 -- 1.4.1 WHO Solid Facts report 13 -- 1.4.2 IROHLA project 14 -- 1.4.3 HEALIT4EU Project 16 -- 1.4.4 WHO Health Evidence network 17 -- 1.5 CAPACITY BUILDING 17 -- 1.5.1 Knowledge development 19 -- 1.5.2 Workforce development 19 -- 1.5.3 Organisational and institutional capacity 20 -- 1.5.4 Partnerships 21 -- 1.5.5 Financial and non-financial resources 21 -- 1.5.6 Governance and leadership 21 -- 2 MATERIALS AND METHOD 22 -- 2.1 GOAL OF THE STUDY 22 -- 2.2 DESIGN OF THE STUDY 22 -- 2.3 IDENTIFICATION OF HEALTH LITERACY POLICIES AND INITIATIVES IN BELGIUM 22 -- 2.4 TRANSVERSAL ANALYSIS OF FOREIGN HEALTH LITERACY POLICIES 23 -- 2.4.1 Choice of the countries 23 -- 2.4.2 Development of the analytical grid 23 -- 2.4.3 Data collection method 23 -- 2.5 FORMULATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A BELGIAN ACTION PLAN 24 -- 3 HEALTH LITERACY IN BELGIUM 24 -- 3.1 THE LEVEL OF HEALTH LITERACY IN BELGIUM 24 -- 3.1.1 2014  Study of the Christian Health Insurance Fund 24 -- 3.1.2 2018  Sciensano National Health Survey 25 -- 3.1.3 Other studies from the Health Insurance Funds 26 -- 3.2 CURRENT HEALTH LITERACY POLICY IN BELGIUM 27 -- 3.2.1 Health in all policies  Charter in Flanders (2003) 27 -- 3.2.2 Recommendations on Health Literacy from the (Flemish) Royal Academy of Medicine (Koninklijke Academie voor Geneeskunde van België -KAGB) (2014) 27 -- 3.2.3 RIZIV  INAMI White paper (2014) 27 -- 3.2.4 Mention in the federal coalition agreement of 9 October 2014 28 -- 3.2.5 FPS Public Health management agreement 2016  2018 28 -- 3.2.6 The Flemish Charter of the rights of the patient/client (SAR-WGG) (2017) 28 -- 3.2.7 Advice of the Flemish Strategical Advisory Board Well-being Health Family (SAR-WGG) (2017) 28 -- 3.2.8 Motion for a resolution to introduce an Action Plan to significantly improve the Health Literacy of Belgians (2018) 29 -- 3.2.9 The strategic plan for health promotion 2018/2022 of the French-speaking government of Brussels. 29 -- 3.3 EXISTING INITIATIVES ON THE FIELD 30 -- 3.3.1 Heerlijk Helder in de Zorg (expertisecentrum MEMORI, Thomas More, 2016) 30 -- 3.3.2 Littératie en santé (Culture & Santé ASBL, Octobre 2016) 30 -- 3.3.3 Oog voor gezondheidsvaardigheden (VIGEZ, 2016) 30 -- 3.3.4 The Well Done MSD Health Literacy Awards (until 2017) and MSD HealthNest (from 2018) 31 -- 3.3.5 Gezondheid en Wetenschap 31 -- 3.3.6 Mon Géneraliste.be 31 -- 3.3.7 MondocMasanté / MijnthuisdokterMijngezondheid 32 -- 3.3.8 The Dr Daniël De Coninck Fund steered by the King Baudouin Foundation (2018) 32 -- 3.3.9 The health insurance funds 32 -- 3.3.10 Efforts of the Belgian patient representative platforms 33 -- 3.3.11 Test Gezond / Test Santé 33 -- 3.3.12 The communities and the civil society 33 -- 4 INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON 33 -- 4.1 BACKGROUND OF THE HL PLANS 34 -- 4.1.1 Low levels of HL 34 -- 4.2 DEVELOPMENT OF THE HL PLANS 36 -- 4.2.1 Initiation of the HL Plans 36 -- 4.2.2 Political contexts of the studied policies and action plans 38 -- 4.2.3 Methods used to develop and to run the HL action plans and policies 39 -- 4.2.4 Financial resources 42 -- 4.3 CONTENT OF THE HL ACTION PLANS AND POLICIES 43 -- 4.3.1 Beneficiaries of the action plans and policies 43 -- 4.3.2 Announced goals and strategies 43 -- 4.3.3 Actors 45 -- 4.3.4 Partnerships 46 -- 4.3.5 Actions 47 -- 4.4 IMPLEMENTATION 49 -- 4.4.1 Timing 49 -- 4.4.2 Opportunities 49 -- 4.4.3 Threats 50 -- 4.5 EVALUATION OF THE HL POLICIES AND PLANS 50 -- 4.6 MONITORING OF HEALTH LITERACY 52 -- 4.7 IMPACT OF THE HL ACTIONS PLANS AND POLICIES 52 -- 5 OPTIONS FOR A BELGIAN HEALTH LITERACY POLICY PLAN 53 -- 5.1 HEALTH LITERACY CAPACITY BUILDING FOR BELGIUM 53 -- 5.1.1 Governance 54 -- 5.1.2 Knowledge development 55 -- 5.1.3 Workforce development 55 -- 5.1.4 Organisational and institutional capacity 56 -- 5.1.5 Partnerships 56 -- 5.1.6 Financial and non-financial resources 57 -- 5.2 THREE POSSIBLE PATHS 57 -- 5.2.1 Conceptual? 57 -- 5.2.2 Pragmatic? 58 -- 5.2.3 Or no plan at all? 58 -- 6 CONCLUSIONS 59 -- 6.1 FIRST, SET THE STAGE FOR A NATIONAL ACTION PLAN 60 -- 6.2 THEN CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING INTERVENTIONS 60 -- 6.2.1 Governance 60 -- 6.2.2 Workforce development .. 61 -- 6.2.3 Partnerships .. 61 -- 6.2.4 Organisational and institutional capacities 61