Health and social professional practices to promote family health literacy: an umbrella review protocol

Abstract

Abstract Background Not only health literacy is central in achieving the sustainable development goals, but there is a growing interest with the COVID-19 pandemic and the insecurities brought about climate change. Health literacy is defined by the WHO as the ability to “gain access to, understand and use information in ways which promote and maintain good health”. Health literacy not only allows one person to maintain good health, but also the family and the community. There is a lack of effective health interventions promoting health literacy and preventing hospitalisations. Knowing that health decisions often occur within the family, we aim to review all existing reviews on professional psychosocial interventions which are effective in promoting health literacy among children, adolescents, and their families. Methods We will search the following databases: MEDLINE via Pubmed, EMBASE, CINHAL, PsycINFO and Web of Science. We will include all cultural and socioeconomic contexts (low- middle- and high-income countries), either community-based or hospital settings. Each stage of the review will be conducted by two independent reviewers and a third reviewer will resolve conflicts. We will use the JBI Data Extraction Form for Review for Systematic Reviews and Research Syntheses to conduct data extraction of the selected studies. For each intervention of interest, an assessment of the quality of evidence will be performed with the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE). Findings will be disseminated via a peer-reviewed publication and useful in regard of a research project in collaboration with Geneva’s University Hospital on children’s psychosocial hospitalization. Discussion The findings of our umbrella review will facilitate the integration in healthcare and social practices of effective interventions promoting health literacy among children and their families and preventing child negligence and psychosocial hospitalization. Systematic review registration This protocol was registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) on December 15, 2022 (registration number: CRD42022384377).