Background: Digital health literacy (DHL) increases the self-efficacy and empowerment of pregnant and lactating women (PLW) in using the Internet for health issues. The European project IC-Health aimed to improve DHL among PLW, through the co-creation of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Methods: The co-creation of the MOOCs included focus groups and the creation of communities of practice (CoPs) with PLW and healthcare professionals aimed to co-design the MOOCs. The quantitative measures of MOOCs’ acceptability, experience in the co-creation process and increase in DHL (dimensions of finding, understanding and appraisal) were assessed. Results: 17 PLW participated in focus groups, 113 participants were included in CoPs and 68 participants evaluated the acceptability of MOOCs. A total of 6 MOOCs aimed at improving PLW’s DHL were co-designed. There was a significant improvement in self-perceived DHL after using MOOCs (p-value < 0.001). The acceptability of MOOCs and co-creation experience were positively valued. Conclusions: The preliminary results of the quantitative assessment showed a higher self-perceived DHL after the IC-Health MOOCs. These results suggest that IC-Health MOOCs and the co-creation methodology appear to be a viable process to carry out an intervention aimed to improve DHL levels in European PLW.

Introducing courses on global health in Italian University curricula is essential to improve public health in Italy and to raise awareness in health professionals about global health challenges and inequalities. CCM (Comitato Collaborazione Medica) has developed a structured strategy to provide medical and nursing students and health professionals eager to work/volunteer in low-and middle-income countries with the necessary skills and knowledge to carry out sustainable health-care interventions, that require not only clinical expertise, but also foremost the understanding of local contexts and approaches to care. The comprehensive understanding of the variety of health-care systems at a global level can also help Western health professionals to properly address global migration challenges and the continuously evolving health needs in their own countries. Since 2004, CCM has been organizing training courses for a wide range of Italian health staff (e.g. physicians, nurses, midwives, laboratory technicians, psychologists, social workers) to transfer knowledge, skills and tools that may help them to address health needs in a globalized world. These courses aim to provide participants with soft skills meant at improving the doctor-patient relationship in a variety of contexts and to address health needs holistically; an additional goal is to raise awareness of global health inequities and inequalities and the determinants of health.