Professional Responsiveness to Health Literacy: A Scoping Review

Background: Difficulty in understanding and using health information can harm the patient and increase the cost of care provided. So, this study classified and mapped the characteristics and interventions that make health care professionals responsive to the patient's health literacy. Methods: Medline (PubMed), CINAHL (EBSCO), PsycInfo, ERIC (ProQuest), Lilacs (BVS) and EMBASE (Elsevier) were searched using a combination of controlled descriptors. The selected studies needed to address the concept or main focus of the study among health care professionals in the care or academic environment. Key Results: After reviewing 34 articles, 14 definitions and 10 subcategories of responsiveness were identified, and a broad characterization of health professional responsiveness to health literacy was proposed. Professional responsiveness to health literacy was characterized as knowing the definition and implications of health literacy for the patient's well-being and being able to develop, adapt, implement, and evaluate health education strategies. Nineteen strategies were mapped for education to ensure professional responsiveness to health literacy, classified as (A) expository (n = 18; 94.7%), (B) interactive (n = 9; 47.4%), (C) practice with educational materials (n = 2; 10.5%), (D) practice with standardized patient or simulation (n = 8; 42.1%), and (E) practice with actual patients (n = 4; 21.1%). Discussion: These characteristics and interventions provide a useful taxonomy for the development of curricula and professional education programs, and for the validation and use of measures to evaluate the health workforce. [HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice. 2022;6(2):e96–e103.] Plain Language Summary: We found 14 definitions and 10 categories of professional responsiveness to health literacy. Professional responsiveness to health literacy was characterized as knowing the definition and implications of health literacy for the patient's well-being and being able to develop, adapt, implement, and evaluate health education strategies. Nineteen strategies were mapped for education to ensure professional responsiveness to health literacy.