Background

Medical research on the prognosis of diseases and their prevention has made significant progress in recent years. The risks of an outbreak and an unfavorable course of disease can be increasingly predicted.
However, these advances also entail new challenges. Persons with an increased risk of disease must deal with an unprecedented wealth of information about these risks in order to make decisions about their behavior – making the health literacy of the person affected a key prerequisite for the sound and autonomous use of these predictive measures.

Objectives

In this project, researchers from three faculties examine the entire process of decision-making, from access to risk-related health information, via its understanding and assessment, through health-related activities. On the basis of the findings, structures and measures for the promotion of the health literacy of persons at risk as well as of relevant institutions will be developed.
Ultimately, the aim is to set up a sustained transdisciplinary research group to promote the health literacy of persons with an increased risk of disease. Thus, in the long run, ceres aims to develop integrative and context-sensitive communication concepts and to establish structures to effectively and sustainably foster health literacy in people at risk.
In connection with this project, ceres has already joined efforts with the Faculty of Medicine in hosting an international conference on Gender-Sensitive Health Literacy in October 2016, with international experts highlighting both individual and institutional health literacy.