Attributes of Organizational Health Literacy in Health Care Centers in Iran: A Qualitative Content Analysis Study

Abstract

Organizational Health Literacy (OHL) is described as a new concept to remote health organizations to implement practices, policies, and systems that make it easier for patients to use, understand, and navigate health information to take care their own health. In Iran, there is no consensus on the attributes of OHL, and its practical implications and scope have not been evaluated. This manuscript is one of the first attempts to explain the attributes of the OHL in health care centers in Iran. This study is a content analysis survey, which was guided by the attributes of the OHL provided by Brach et al. and 26 semi-structured interviews were conducted with Iranian health professionals and employees of healthcare organizations from June 2020 to January 2021. A data analysis was performed using the MAXQDA 10 software. Across the study, ten sub-themes, 21 subcategories, and 67 codes emerged. The 10 main attributes of OHL were management, integration of health literacy in the organization, workforce, participation, range of HL skills, HL strategies, access, media variety, the role of the organization in crisis, and costs. These attributes may guide the planning of health care centers improvements and have the potential to promote health service reforms and public health policy.