Background: Health literacy (HL) is a determinant of health and important for autonomous decision‐making. Migrants are at high risk for limited HL. Improving HL is important for equitable promotion of migrants' health.
Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of interventions for improving HL in migrants. To assess whether female or male migrants respond differently to the identified interventions.
Search methods: We ran electronic searches to 2 February 2022 in CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, PsycInfo and CINAHL. We also searched trial registries. We used a study filter for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) (RCT classifier).
Selection criteria: We included RCTs and cluster‐RCTs addressing HL either as a concept or its components (access, understand, appraise, apply health information).
Data collection and analysis: We used the methodological procedures recommended by Cochrane and followed the PRISMA‐E guidelines. Outcome categories were: a) HL, b) quality of life (QoL), c) knowledge, d) health outcomes, e) health behaviour, f) self‐efficacy, g) health service use and h) adverse events. We conducted meta‐analysis where possible, and reported the remaining results as a narrative synthesis.
Main results: We included 28 RCTs and six cluster‐RCTs (8249 participants), all conducted in high‐income countries. Participants were migrants with a wide range of conditions. All interventions were adapted to culture, language and literacy. We did not find evidence that HL interventions cause harm, but only two studies assessed adverse events (e.g. anxiety). Many studies reported results for short‐term assessments (less than six weeks after total programme completion), reported here. For several comparisons, there were also findings at later time points, which are presented in the review text.
Suche