An Occupational Health Literacy Intervention in Nursing Homes Improved Organizational Health Literacy-A Quasi-Experimental Stepped Wedge Cluster Trial.

Abstract

This study examined the effectiveness of a workplace health literacy intervention on individual, interpersonal, and organizational health literacy. Using a quasi-experimental stepped wedge cluster design, we evaluated an intervention for 509 nursing home employees with two elements: 1) courses for employees and management on pain prevention, management, and communication and 2) structured dialogues between employees and supervisors, emphasizing pain prevention. One organizational health literacy item improved, with supervisors helping with pain prevention increasing by 0.42 points (95% CI 0.11;0.73). Positive trends were observed in supervisor actions when informed about pain (0.39 points, 95% CI -0.09;0.86), ease of finding workplace pain solutions (0.12 points, 95% CI -0.03;0.79), and employees having pain management information (0.44 points, 95% CI -0.03;0.92). The intervention improved one organizational health literacy item, with positive trends in three other items.