Patient empowerment tools and health literacy study (PET study) V1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The impact of health literacy on patient empowerment among healthcare service-users: a mixed-methods cross-sectional study
IRAS ID
338075
Contact name
Katherine E. Woolley
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 12 months, 0 days
Research summary
Patient empowerment tools in direct patient care are designed to measure the level of patient activation each service user has, with patient activation being the level of knowledge, confidence and skill someone has in managing their own healthcare. Patient empowerment tools, aim to assess an individual’s ability to fully engage with making healthcare decisions and tailor targeted interventions. There are numerous tools that exists, which combine several allied concepts such as self-efficacy, health literacy, confidence and engagement into a single measure. When used effectively these tools can enable highly activated individuals to self-care and low activated individuals to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills to progress towards self-care. Health literacy and patient empowerment level should be considered in conjunction to facilitate delivery of patient-centred care.
Therefore, this project will firstly explore how health literacy affects the perceptions and views of service users from two clinical areas on their ability to understand and complete patient empowerment tools in clinical practice. Secondly, it will explore the perceptions and views of clinical staff from two clinical areas about the appropriateness of patient empowerment tools in clinical practice with a range of health literacy levels. The outcomes from this project will be used to inform subsequent investigations into implementation of Patient empowerment tools, looking at collective level influences and effectiveness of the implementation strategies. All these steps combined are anticipated to inform the equitable development and integration of Patient empowerment tools into patient care at a national level across NHS Wales. Future work in this programme may include exploring the views of wider clinical areas, health board leadership and technology experts.
REC name
North West - Haydock Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/NW/0251
Date of REC Opinion
5 Aug 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion