Enhancing health literacy awareness and communication practices among primary health care professionals: a pre-test–post-test study

Primary care encompasses health protection and improvement, disease prevention, patient care and community development. Health professionals in this field need adequate awareness, knowledge and skills for patients with inadequate health literacy. The study was aimed at investigating the effects of health literacy training given to health professionals working in primary health care centers on their knowledge, awareness and self-reported communication practices. This single-group pre-test–post-test study was conducted with 225 healthcare workers in western Türkiye, who received single-session interactive health literacy awareness training. Data were collected using the Descriptive Information Form and the Health Literacy Training Survey for Healthcare Providers (HLTSHP). Pre- and post-training scores were compared using the dependent samples t-test, and a multiple linear regression was used to examine whether profession, educational status and length of service predicted the change in scores. Pre-training knowledge of health literacy, ability to recognize low health literacy and frequency of using open communication techniques increased significantly after the training (p < 0.05). The post-training mean HLTSHP score (mean ± standard deviation: 83.92 ± 10.88) was higher than their pre-training score (mean ± standard deviation: 69.28 ± 11.80). The regression model was not significant (F(8.216) = 0.79, p = .614, R2 = .028), and none of the predictors was significant (p ≥ .17). Health literacy training was associated with improvements in primary care professionals’ knowledge and self-reported communication practices. Expanding such training may contribute to more effective communication with patients and improved quality of healthcare services.