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. 2023 Aug 1;38(4):daad046.
doi: 10.1093/heapro/daad046.

Do health service waiting areas contribute to the health literacy of consumers? A scoping review

Cassie E McDonald  1   2   3 , Catherine Voutier  4 , Dhruv Govil  5 , Aruska N D'Souza  1   2 , Dominic Truong  1 , Shaza Abo  1   2 , Louisa J Remedios  1   6 , Catherine L Granger  1   2
Affiliations

Do health service waiting areas contribute to the health literacy of consumers? A scoping review

Cassie E McDonald et al. Health Promot Int. .

Abstract

Health service waiting areas commonly provide health information, resources and supports for consumers; however, the effect on health literacy and related outcomes remains unclear. This scoping review of the literature aimed to explore the use of waiting areas as a place to contribute to the health literacy and related outcomes of consumers attending health appointments. Articles were included if they focussed on health literacy or health literacy responsiveness (concept) in outpatient or primary care health service waiting areas (context) for adult consumers (population) and were published after 2010. Ten bibliographic databases, one full-text archive, dissertation repositories and web sources were searched. The search yielded 5095 records. After duplicate removal, 3942 title/abstract records were screened and 360 full-text records assessed. Data were charted into a standardized data extraction tool. A total of 116 unique articles (published empirical and grey literature) were included. Most articles were set in primary and community care (49%) waiting areas. A diverse range of health topics and resource types were available, but results demonstrated they were not always used by consumers. Outcomes measured in intervention studies were health knowledge, intentions and other psychological factors, self-reported and observed behaviours, clinical outcomes and health service utilization. Intervention studies overall demonstrated positive trends in health literacy-related outcomes, although the benefit declined after 3-6 months. Research on using waiting areas for health literacy purposes is increasing globally. Future research investigating the needs of consumers to inform optimal intervention design is needed.

Keywords: health information; health literacy; health service; waiting area.

Plain language summary

Health service waiting areas are commonly used to provide health resources (such as health information, resources and supports) for consumers. Health resources which are appropriate and accessible for consumers can improve health literacy by increasing health knowledge, supporting good decision-making or changing behaviours which may result in better health. Although it is common to offer health resources in health service waiting areas, the evidence supporting this practice is unclear. This scoping review of the literature focussed on the use of health service waiting areas as a place to contribute to the health literacy of adult consumers attending outpatient or primary care health appointments. A total of 116 unique articles were included which addressed this issue. Majority of articles were set in primary and community care waiting areas (49%). A range of health topics and resource types were available but these were not always used by consumers. Overall, interventions in waiting areas targeting health literacy-related outcomes resulted in positive outcomes, although the benefit declined after 3–6 months. Research on using waiting areas for health-literacy purposes is increasing worldwide. Future research is needed to identify how to optimize the effectiveness of interventions in waiting areas to benefit consumers.

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Conflict of interest statement

Three authors of this scoping review—Cassie E. McDonald, Louisa J. Remedios and Catherine L. Granger—were also authors on three included articles. Two independent reviewers (co-authors or acknowledged contributors) who were not involved in the included articles were responsible for the screening, data extraction and data checking of these articles. The other authors declare that there is no conflict of interest to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1:
Fig. 1:
PRISMA flow diagram.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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