Building Community Health Literacy with a Social Network Perspective

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the vital importance of health literacy to combat misinformation, increase trust, and ensure health equity. Health literacy is a collective responsibility, including for organizations to “equitably enable individuals to find, understand, and use information and services.” This presentation will share key insights concerning health literacy in a social context. from a 2-year regional effort to build a sustainable, health literate community by growing trusted, multi-sectorial partnerships, relationships, and networks. METHODS: Advancing Health Literacy Franklin County is a 2-year project initiated in June 2021 with a goal of building a sustainable, health literate community in Franklin County, Ohio, USA. The project is a collaboration among public health departments, health care organizations, an academic institution, and community organizations. Evaluations include social network analysis of organizational relationships over time, training outcomes, validated organizational health literacy (OHL) measures, and key informant interviews. RESULTS: Social network analysis show growth in the number of engaged organizations and stronger ties in these relationships. Training outcomes reveal increased knowledge, skills, and recognition of the importance of health literacy. OHL measures show engagement and improved capacity. Key informant interviews highlight the importance of the social perspective for health literacy. CONCLUSIONS: Considering health literacy in a social context is important to building community-level health literacy in a sustainable way, including networks of organizations working together and the engagement of community leaders to share trusted, community relevant health information in their professional and personal social networks. Insights from this real-world implementation can inform future practice, policy, and research.