Project lead: Prof. Dr. Christian Apfelbacher PhD

Project member(s): Eva-Maria Grepmeier, Saida Tongalaza

Funding: DFG - Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation), 01.10.2019 - 30.04.2024

HELICAP – “Health literacy in early childhood allergy prevention: parental competencies and public health context in a shifting evidence landscape” has started in January 2020. It has been granted by the DFG (German Research Foundation), initially for 3 years. The spokesperson of the research group is Prof. Dr Christian Apfelbacher, director of the Institute of Social Medicine and Health Systems Research (ISMHSR) at the Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg. The overall aim of HELICAP is to investigate health literacy within early childhood allergy prevention (ECAP) in six subprojects. By reducing the evidence-practice gap concerning ECAP, the health literacy of new parents is aimed to be empowered by a user-friendly design and organization of the health system as well as health information in general. Higher health literacy for all parents is expected to decrease the risk of allergies among their children. HELICAP is a joint project of leading scientists from four locations in Germany. Aside from the Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg, the University of Education in Freiburg, the University of Regensburg as well as the Hannover Medical School  are collaborative partners within the interdisciplinary research group HELICAP.