Program duration: 01/12/2012 - 30/11/2015

IROHLA – Intervention Research on Health Literacy among Ageing Population

Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)

Prolepsis was a partner in the European project titled “IROHLA – Intervention Research on Health Literacy among Ageing Population”. The program was launched in December 2012 and lasted for three years. It was implemented within the framework of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The coordinator of IROHLA was Academisch Ziekenhuis Groningen (UMCG) in the Netherlands. Apart from Prolepsis, 20 other partners were involved in the project.

The IROHLA project aims to introduce evidence-based guidelines for policy and practice for a comprehensive approach improving health literacy of the ageing population in member states of the European Union.

Health literacy is one of the social determinants of health and reflects how well persons can understand, digest and critically reflect on information with regard to health and illness. People with sufficient health literacy skills are able to act proactively on health issues, take their own decisions and manage health and illness well. Right now in EU countries 10%-30% of the population has insufficient health literacy skills, which is associated with higher morbidity and mortality, while utilization of health services is higher and treatment outcomes are poorer than average. Health literacy is a major issue amongst the ageing population in Europe. Tackling health literacy problems in the ageing population leads to social innovation and reduction of costs in healthcare. This project will address health literacy issues of older people through a comprehensive approach which combines empowering interventions and health literacy communication, applying cross-sectoral and cross- national learning.

More specifically, IROHLA aims to:

  • Contribute to the understanding of health literacy in different European contexts and develop a comprehensive model for addressing health literacy needs in older adults in various settings
  • Assess – based on a manual – the quality and feasibility of health literacy interventions/activities in the ageing population
  • Select from a long list of interventions a set of maximum 20 interventions which together constitute a comprehensive approach of addressing health literacy needs of the ageing population and pilot them
  • Develop an evidence based guideline for policy and practice at national, regional and local level which shows policy makers the specific and important measures they can take 
  • Actively disseminate the results.    

Contact information 

Pania Karnaki, MA, Project coordinator: p.karnaki@prolepsis.gr

Services: Preventive Medicine

Project partners

Coordinator:
Academisch Ziekenhuis Groningen, the Netherlands

Associated partners:

CBO BV (CBO), the Netherlands 
University of Groningen (RUG), the Netherlands 
Jacobs University Bremen (JacobsUni), Germany 
Baltic Region Healthy Cities Association (BRHCA), Finland 
National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG), Ireland 
University of East Anglia (UEA), UK 
National Institute for Health Development (OEFI), Hungary 
EuroHealthNet (EHN), Belgium 
Italian National Institute on Ageing (INRCA), Italy 
Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA), Germany 
AGE Platform Europe (AGE-Platform), Belgium 
European Social Insurance Platform (ESIP), Belgium 
Regional Agency for Health Marche Region (ARS), Italy 
Hanze University of Applied Science Groningen (HUAS), the Netherlands 
Cambo Industries Digital (Cambo), Greece 
Liveonline Coaching (LoL), Germany 
ETV-NL (ETV), The Netherlands 
Noordhoff Publishers (Noordhoff), The Netherlands 
IP Health Solutions BV (IPH -Vita), The Netherlands 
AOK Bundesverband (AOK), Germany

Relative links
www.irohla.eu