Using an experience based design approach to advance health literacy in Ireland

Health literacy supports people, communities, and organisations in addressing noncommunicable diseases and their determinants, taking meaningful action to reduce risk factors, and support health and wellbeing for all. Addressing the issue of low health literacy has the potential to increase health, health equity and health system effectiveness by building citizens' capacities for health. The Sláintecare Healthy Communities programme was launched in 2021 in Ireland focussing specifically on promoting health and wellbeing at the community level, and improving health literacy is a key area of focus for this programme. This study aimed to work with stakeholders, in two Sláintecare Healthy Community areas, through a four-stage reflective process to discover, define, develop, and deliver innovative recommendations to improve health literacy within their communities. Two co-design workshops, adopting an adapted double diamond design approach (DDDA) took place in Spring 2024, one in each case study area. Sixty-eight stakeholders engaged in two DDDA workshops, undertaking tasks in same stakeholder and mixed stakeholder groups. A series of recommendations were co-created, with stakeholders voting for their preferred recommendations to refine this list in each area. These recommendations highlighted the need for effective early intervention, improved health infrastructure, and engaging with the community to connect, support, and sustain existing health literacy related initiatives. This is a novel example of health literacy stakeholder engagement in Ireland, and critically, it provides a tangible example of the process and outcomes of a collaboration between stakeholders and researchers which can be applied beyond these contexts.