What is Health Literacy?

WHAT IS HEALTH LITERACY 

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, Title V, defines health literacy as the degree to which an individual has the capacity to obtain, communicate, process, and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health decisions.1-3 

The skills required encompass reading, listening, analytics, numeracy, and decision-making, plus the ability to navigate a complex and changing healthcare delivery system. Healthcare providers, patients, and other stakeholders have  important roles in health literacy. 

CAPACITY & SKILLS 

Capacity is the potential a person has to do or accomplish something. Health literacy skills are those people use to realize their potential in health situations. They apply these skills either to make sense of health information and services or provide health information and services to others. 

Anyone who needs health information and services also needs health literacy skills to 

• Find information and services 
• Communicate their needs and preferences and respond to information and services 
• Process the meaning and usefulness of the information and services 
• Understand the choices, consequences and context of the information and services 
• Decide which information and services match their needs and preferences so they can act 

Anyone who provides health information and services to others, such as a doctor, nurse, dentist, pharmacist, or public health worker, also needs health literacy skills to 

• Help people find information and services 
• Communicate about health and healthcare 
• Process what people are explicitly and implicitly asking for 
• Understand how to provide useful information and services 
• Decide which information and services work best for different situations and people so they can act 

Researchers can choose from many different types of health literacy skill measures. 

Organizational Health Literacy 

Organizational health literacy is what organizations and professionals do to help people. 

• Find 
• Process 
• Understand 
• Decide on health information and services. 

 Anyone who provides health information and services to others², such as a doctor, nurse, dentist, pharmacist, or public health worker, also needs health literacy skills to 

• Help people find information and services 
• Communicate about health and healthcare 
• Process what people are explicitly and implicitly asking for 
• Understand how to provide useful information and services 
• Decide which information and services work best for different situations and people so they can act 

 Given the increasing complexity of a medical or surgical diagnosis, treatment, follow-up with survivorship care plans, health literacy is integral to delivery of optimal patient-centered care. 

1. Nielsen-Bohlman L, Panzer AM, Kindig DA (eds). Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion. Institute of Medicine Committee on Health Literacy. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2004.
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/healthliteracy/learn/index.html (accessed June 20, 2019) 

 

ABSTRACT 

Although health literacy is commonly defined as an individual trait—the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions (Ratzan and Parker, 2000)—there is a growing appreciation that health literacy does not depend on the skills of individuals alone (IOM, 2003). Health literacy is the product of individuals’ capacities and the health literacy–related demands and complexities of the health care system (Baker, 2006; Rudd 2003). System changes are needed to align health care demands better with the public’s skills and abilities (Parker, 2009; Rudd, 2007). Health literacy has been identified as a priority area for national action, first by the Department of Health and Human Services as an objective for Healthy People 2010 (HHS, 2000), and again in the 2003 Institute of Medicine report Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion (IOM, 2004). The following decade saw the achievement of many milestones that marked health literacy’s ascendency in both the public and private sectors (Parker and Ratzan, 2010), including a National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy (ODPHP, 2010). Health literacy has now reached a possible tipping point, the place where paying attention to it could quickly become the norm for health care organizations (Koh et al., 2012). 

 

POSTER 

In a perfect world, the attributes of a health literate health care organization 

1. Has leadership that makes health literacy integral to its mission, structure, and operations.

2. Integrates health literacy into planning, evaluation measures, patient safety, and quality improvement.

3. Prepares the workforce to be health literate and monitors progress.

4. Includes populations served in the design, implementation, and evaluation of health information and services.

5. Meets the needs of populations with a range of health literacy skills while avoiding stigmatization.

6. Uses health literacy strategies in interpersonal communications and confirms understanding at all points of contact.

7. Provides easy access to health information and services and navigation assistance.

8. Designs and distributes print, audiovisual, and social media content that is easy to understand and act on.

9. Addresses health literacy in high-risk situations, including care transitions and communications about medicines.

10. Communicates clearly what health plans cover and what individuals will have to pay for services.