Citizens’ experiences with occupational-rehabilitation meetings in Denmark, and measurement of the citizens’ health literacy levels: A qualitative study

Abstract

Background: The study explores citizens' subjective experiences with occupational-rehabilitation meetings and their health literacy levels. Methods: We used the method "Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis" (IPA) to investigate six citizens' subjective experiences with an occupational-rehabilitation meeting. The nine domain Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) was used to measure the participants' individual levels of health literacy. With an inductive approach, the individual levels of health literacy were compared to the citizens' subjective experiences with the occupational-rehabilitation meeting. Results: Six superordinate themes applied to all participants: the importance of the meeting; the experience of the structure of the meeting; the relationship to the social worker; the importance of an assessor; comprehension of information; and interaction with the occupational-rehabilitation team. Health literacy levels differed between the participants and a variation was seen within the nine domains. It was found that four of the superordinate themes could be seen in relation to seven of the HLQ domains. Conclusions: Within the context of an occupational-rehabilitation meeting, social support, information, and the ability to interact with professionals were important for all participants. These aspects should therefore be considered by the professionals in the occupational-rehabilitation team to enable the citizens to actively take part in the occupational-rehabilitation meeting.