Health Literacy Training Methods in Physiotherapy Education and Clinical Practice: A scoping review[BM1] 

Carles Fernández Jané¹, Sanna Paasu Hynynen², Pirjo Mäki-Natunen², Angelique Hagen³, Monica Christova⁴

¹Facultat de Ciències de la Salut Blanquerna, Universitat Ramón Llull, Spain; ²JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Finland; ³University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, Netherlands; ⁴University of Applied Sciences FH JOANNEUM, Austria

Corresponding author

Carles Fernández Jané, carlesfj@blanquerna.url.edu

Keywords: Health literacy, physiotherapy specialty, education, clinical competence.

Introduction

Health Literacy (HL) is related to the ability to obtain, understand, appraise, and apply health information. Limited HL can lead to poorer health behaviours and higher socioeconomic costs. Because of the physiotherapist's increasing role as health provider, it is important to know how to guide clients using reliable and accurate health information and interventions so that they can make informed decisions about their own health. However, appropriate training methods in physiotherapy education are not sufficiently established or such training is not used systematically to increase HL competence in students and in clinical practise.

Aim

To identify and describe training methods and educational interventions aiming to improve health literacy in clients and HL competencies in physiotherapy students and professionals.

Methods

We performed a scoping review following the methodological framework described by Arksey and O'Malley. This framework includes six phases: (1) identifying the research question; (2) identifying relevant studies; (3) selecting studies; (4) charting the data; (5) collating, summarising, and reporting the results; and (6) consulting with the key stakeholders. The research question was defined as "What kind of training/interventions are described in the literature to improve health literacy competences of physiotherapy students and clients?". Relevant studies were identified using Pubmed, CENTRAL, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, PEDro and Eric databases. Rayyan web-based software was used for the selection process, and data was of the included studies was extracted using a predesigned form. Information related to the aim of the study, participants characteristics, and interventions characteristics were described narratively and using summary tables. Finally, a stakeholder consultation was organised by each of the collaborating institutions.

Results

We included 36 studies describing 34 interventions, 26 targeting clients and 8 targeting physiotherapy students. Regarding clients, intervention modalities included group or individual face-to-face educational sessions, some of them complemented with materials such as manuals, booklets, videos, presentations, flipcharts, and patient books. Regarding physiotherapy students, interventions included small group lectures, specific educational modules, and practical workshops. Some sessions included manuals, clinical cases, and discussion activities.

Conclusion

The number of interventions identified to develop HL competencies for physiotherapy professionals and students was much lower than those for clients. Also, we identified more interventions including active physiotherapists, taking place in their working place, rather than targeting students in an academic setting, suggesting that the HL skills development took place rather during the professional practice and less during the education.

Métodos de capacitación en alfabetización en salud en la educación y la práctica clínica de fisioterapia: una revisión de alcance

Carles Fernández Jané¹, Sanna Paasu Hynynen², Pirjo Mäki-Natunen², Angelique Hagen³, Monica Christova⁴

¹Facultat de Ciències de la Salut Blanquerna, Universitat Ramón Llull, Spain; ²JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Finland; ³University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, Netherlands; ⁴University of Applied Sciences FH JOANNEUM, Austria

Autor para correspondencia

Carles Fernández Jané, carlesfj@blanquerna.url.edu

Palabras clave: Alfabetización en salud, especialidad en fisioterapia, educación, competencia clínica.

Introducción

La Health Literacy (HL) está relacionada con la capacidad de obtener, comprender, evaluar y aplicar información de salud. La HL limitada puede conducir a peores comportamientos de salud y mayores costos socioeconómicos. Debido al papel cada vez mayor del fisioterapeuta como proveedor de salud, es importante saber cómo guiar a los clientes utilizando información e intervenciones de salud confiables y precisas para que puedan tomar decisiones informadas sobre su propia salud. Sin embargo, los métodos de formación apropiados en la educación en fisioterapia no están suficientemente establecidos o dicha formación no se utiliza sistemáticamente para aumentar la competencia en HL en los estudiantes y en la práctica clínica.

 [BM1]Falta título, palabras clave…. En castellano