Key points
- Health Literacy can help us find, understand, and use health information to prevent health problems.
- When organizations share information with people that is too hard to understand, it creates a health literacy problem.
- Reviewing ob体育 resources can help you better develop your health literacy skills.
Why it's important
Health literacy is important for everyone because, at some point in our lives, we all need to be able to find, understand, and use health information and services.
Taking care of our health is part of everyday life, not just when we visit a doctor, clinic, or hospital. Health literacy can help us prevent health problems, protect our health, and better manage health problems when they arise.
Even people who read well and are comfortable using numbers can face health literacy issues when:
- They aren't familiar with medical terms or how their bodies work.
- They have to interpret statistics and evaluate risks and benefits that affect their health and safety.
- They are diagnosed with a serious illness and are scared and confused.
- They have health conditions that require complicated self-care.
- They are voting on an issue affecting the community's health and relying on unfamiliar technical information.
Why is there a problem?
When organizations or people create and give others health information that is too difficult for them to understand, we create a health literacy problem. When we expect them to figure out health services with many unfamiliar, confusing or even conflicting steps, we also create a health literacy problem.

Limited health literacy vs. limited literacy
Limited health literacy and limited literacy are not the same, but they are related. Strong literacy and numeracy skills help people understand and use health information and services, but research shows that most people say that information and services are unfamiliar, complicated, and too technical.
How we can help
We can help people use the health literacy skills they have. How? We can do the following:
- Create and provide information and services people can understand and use most effectively with the skills they have. See Develop and Test Materials.
- Work with educators and others to help people become more familiar with health information and services and build their health literacy skills over time. See .
- Build our own skills as communicators of health information. See Find Training for free, online options.
- Work with trusted messengers to share your information.
- In many communities, faith leaders are trusted messengers. See the ob体育-funded Georgia Nutrition and Activity Initiative's guide for ways to engage members of faith communities in sharing your messages.
- See for ways in which community health workers (also known as promotores) serve as trusted messengers.
- In many communities, faith leaders are trusted messengers. See the ob体育-funded Georgia Nutrition and Activity Initiative's guide for ways to engage members of faith communities in sharing your messages.
- Build health-literate organizations. See the following:
- Consider the cultural and linguistic norms, environment, and history of your intended audience when developing your information and messages.
- Use certified translators and interpreters who can adapt to your intended audience's language preferences, communication expectations, and health literacy skills.
Resources
Limited health literacy: Reports and evidence
Several reports document that limited health literacy affects many types of health conditions, diseases, situations, and outcomes, including health status and costs.
- and (UnitedHealth Group 2020)
- (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality 2011)
- (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2010)
- (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2006)
- (Institute of Medicine 2004)
- : This issue brief summarizes key findings and presents some policy implications of the first ever National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL).
In 2006, the U.S. Department of Education published the only national data on health literacy skills. The study found that adults who self-report the worst health also have the most limited literacy, numeracy, and health literacy skills. See .
The U.S. Department of Education subsequently published 2012/14 and 2017 results on self-reported health status of U.S. adults using data from the . These results reinforce the findings of their 2006 report.
European Union countries have found similar health literacy skill issues in the (Source: Maastricht University 2012).
The following two resources are regularly updated with health literacy research:
- (National Library of Medicine)
- (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine)
Health literacy leaders
Listen to health literacy leaders describe their research and practice in (Source: Health Literacy Out Loud).