Background: Until now a comprehensive, consensus-based tool that can be used by a variety of health care organizations for assessing their organizational health literacy (OHL) is missing. Therefore, we aimed to develop and test a literature- and consensus-based self-assessment tool.
Methods: The study is based on a literature review that was previously published by the authors. For the development of the self-assessment tool, the criteria identified in the literature were synthesized with criteria gained through group discussions with representatives of different types of health care organizations all based in Hamburg (Germany). Consensus on the criteria was reached through a Delphi process. A review by the project’s persons with lived experience committee was included in the process. The self-assessment tool was converted into an online tool and refined through a pretest. Finally, the online survey was piloted and the reliability and item loadings for each scale were analyzed.
Results: In total, 77 criteria (items) characterizing a health literate health care organization were developed and grouped into five main categories (scales): 1) “easy access and navigation”, 2) “integration, prioritization, and dissemination of OHL”, 3) “qualification, quality management, evaluation, and needs assessment”, 4) “communication with target groups”, and 5) “involvement and support of target groups”. The results of the online survey showed that the tool is suitable for assessing an organization’s status quo on OHL. The psychometric analysis showed good to excellent internal consistency. Item analyses supported the developed self-assessment tool structure.
Conclusions: We were able to define a set of 77 items to characterize OHL. These can be used as a new, comprehensive, and consensus-based self-assessment tool to identify aspects that need improvement. We found evidence that the self-assessment tool, based on the identified criteria, consists of the assumed five scales. Further research should analyze the validity of the self-assessment tool on a higher detail level.