Can an extended civic orientation course improve newly settled migrants’ health literacy and social capital? : A quasi-experimental study

• Structural and contextual factors such as limited work opportunities, restrictive integration policies and discrimination negatively affect the health and well-being of newly settled refugee migrants in receiving high-income countries. Health promotion initiatives aiming to facilitate access to work and integration by enhancing individual-level health resources have been tried out within the Swedish Civic Orientation. However, longitudinal evaluations of these interventions are rare. The aim of the current study was to compare the effectiveness of a regular and an extended civic orientation course with added health communication and examine whether the latter would improve self-rated health and psychological well-being, health literacy, and social capital among newly settled refugee migrants in Sweden. Pre-and post-assessment questionnaires were collected from the intervention group receiving the extended course (n=143) and a control group receiving the regular course (n=173). Linear mixed models and Chi-square analyses showed a significant increase with a small effect size (0.21) in health literacy in the intervention group. However, there were no significant changes in emotional and practical support, general self-rated health, or psychological well-being. The findings indicate that added health communication provided within the Swedish civic orientation can increase health literacy. However, further longitudinal studies are needed to confirm the sustainability of the observed effect and examine whether these short-term improvements in health literacy translate to long-term benefits in other outcomes such as health and integration of newly settled refugee migrants.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Social Medicine

Socialmedicin

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

ovr (subject category)