People with intellectual disabilities have a significant lower level of health literacy compared to the general population which exacerbates participation of the target group. Therefore, people with ID shall be strengthened with regard to health literacy. Explanatory videos are a promising approach to reach that goal. Yet, explanatory videos are neither frequently used in people with intellectual disabilities nor is known a lot about the efficacy of explanatory videos. Two scoping reviews were conducted. One review is an update of an existing review dealing with Health Literacy in people with intellectual disabilities. The second review focused on explanatory videos and people with intellectual disabilities. CINAHL, PubMed, PubPsych and Web of Science were searched. Health Literacy and intellectual disability: nine publications were identified: five publications focused on several aspects of Health Literacy in the target group. A total of four publications discussed ways to increase Health Literacy in people with intellectual disabilities. One publication described existing barriers in accessing and understanding health-related information for people with intellectual disabilities. Explanatory videos and intellectual disability: No eligible publications could be found. The conceptual discussion on health literacy in people with intellectual disabilities is continuing. Nevertheless, often only small subgroups are addressed. Although ideas for increasing health literacy in people with intellectual disabilities exist, there are only little interventions that were scientifically evaluated. There are publications that deal with explanatory videos in the context of intellectual disability, but they do not focus on the efficacy of these videos or special needs of the target group.
Keywords: explanatory videos; health literacy; health promotion; people with intellectual disabilities; scoping review.
There is an ongoing scientific discussion about health literacy and people with intellectual disabilities which is still located on a conceptual level. Most of the literature that was identified via one of the scoping reviews deals with certain aspects of health literacy. Some studies examined interventions that aim at improving health literacy in people with intellectual disabilities. A fairly disregarded intervention for increasing health literacy can be found in explanatory videos. Yet, there are hardly any studies that evaluate the effectiveness of using explanatory videos for people with intellectual disabilities. Therefore, a project at the University of Applied Sciences Bielefeld develops and evaluates explanatory videos for the target group. Their health literacy shall be strengthened.
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