Introduction:

Promoting health literacy is essential for patients to make informed healthcare decisions, ensuring more efficient resource utilization and contributing to long-term sustainability.

Objectives:

Enhance health literacy among patients in six health units in Northern Portugal, focusing on the organization and structure of primary healthcare services (PHC) and the medical specialty of general practice/family medicine (GPFM).

Methods:

An observational, prospective cohort study was conducted. Questionnaires in Google® Docs format were administered to patients aged 18 and older who met the inclusion criteria, both before and one month after the intervention. The intervention involved watching an educational video created by the authors about PHC's organization, resources, and GPFM specialty.

Results:

The pre-intervention questionnaire received responses from 274 patients, with 165 of them viewing the educational video and 113 completing the post-intervention questionnaire. Eighty-eight participants engaged in all phases of the project and were considered eligible for result analysis. After the intervention, there was a statistically significant improvement in the overall questionnaire score, with the percentage of correct answers increasing from 66.7% to 72.7% (p=0.004; CI 95%). Correct answer rates also improved across most of the questions.

Discussion and Conclusion:

Health literacy empowers individuals to make informed health choices, resulting in economic and social benefits. This project led to the creation of a multimedia tool that can enhance the understanding of Portuguese patients regarding PHC, with potential for replication in other regions of the country.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )