Health literacy enables people to make decisions for their own health. It is therefore an important resource for self-determined action. However, po-pulation groups have different prerequisites for ob-taining, understanding, and evaluating health-related information and implementing decisions. This results in health inequalities and inequities in many areas of daily and professional life. For exa-mple, due to various barriers, hard-to-reach popula-tions do not profit from health interventions.
Public institutions such as daycare centers, schools, health insurance companies, health offices and workplaces have the opportunity to reach a large part of the population. They can thus strengthen the health literacy of individuals and groups through health information, interventions and prevention services. The aforementioned institutional actors have specific insights and, therefore, have not only the potential but also the responsibili-ty to promote health opportunities in their respective areas as well as the population's trust in the institution.
However, this also results in complex responsibili-ties for health literacy, which have to be considered in a socio-cultural, historical and organizational context. From the perspective of public health ethics, it is interesting to know who is responsible for the failure to strengthen health literacy, especi-ally among vulnerable and marginalized groups. It is therefore important for professional actors to reflect on the (long-term) consequences of a lack of or misguided promotion of health literacy. As public health professionals in training, we would like to discuss the following questions at our con-ference:
Which professional actors in public institutions bear responsibility for strengthening health literacy? What does it mean to be a responsible public health actor in practice?
In the course of life, health issues change. In the different phases of life, different actors also play a role. Therefore, we would like to discuss these gui-ding questions based on the categories "growing up, education/work, everyday life and aging".
We plan contributions from the keynote speakers Prof. Marie-Luise Dierks (Hanover) and Prof. Dr. Mark Schweda (Oldenburg), poster presentations by students and a fish-bowl discussion.

You have already dealt with a question in your stu-dies that fits to this call? You are looking for a topic for your next term paper or thesis? You are leading, alone or in a group, a student research project on this topic? Then contribute to the discussion with your work and present your results at the con-ference in the form of a 15-minute poster presenta-tion, followed by a discussion round!

Apply by November 15, 2023 with an abstract: phethik@uni-bremen.de

The abstract (max. 1500 characters incl. blanks) should contain the following points:
Background/question; project description/method; conclusion/results; contribution to discussi-on/lessons learned.

Other information we need from you:
Please also write 2-3 sentences about yourself (subject of study, possible professional experience, previous contact with ethics). If you are traveling to Bremen from and cannot bear your costs alone, please contact us. We will try to find a solution or to support you.

Schedule:
The planning group is looking forward to your appli-cation and will give you a feedback until the end of November.

Target group:
You can apply regardless of your professional background and experience level. It is important to us that your abstract is relevant to the conference topic and that you are are currently enrolled in a degree program.

About our group:
We, Luis Babin, Maike Behrens, Fenja Brandes, Kerstin Flohr, Paula Ladwig, Lu Michelsen, Mat-hilda Prekel & Svenja von Engeln are Public Health students of the University of Bremen and are en-gaged in the seminar "Open Space Public Health Ethics" under the supervision of PD Dr. Solveig Lena Hansen with the planning of a scientific conference on a self-selected topic. The realization will not necessarily be done by the same group, because in the coming semester students will get the chance to participate in the conference. For Bremen students there will be a seminar (mo-dule Open General Studies) in winter semester 23/24, in which the selected abstracts as well as the organization of the conference will be prepared.

Contact and further information:

www.uni-bremen.de/institut-fuer-public-health-und-pflegeforschung/abteilungen-arbeitsgruppen/public-health-forschung/public-health-ethik-und-health-humanities