What is Health Literacy?

IAPO defines health literacy to include an individual's reading level, as well as language, education level, cultural  background,  and  readiness  to  receive  health  information  by  oral  or  visual  means. 

All these factors may create barriers to understanding, and therefore to individuals' ability to take action to improve their health.  Therefore, health literacy involves both comprehending and taking appropriate action.

Why is Low Health Literacy a Problem?

Low health literacy affects a person's ability to make informed decisions about his or her health and can result in the ineffective treatment and rehabilitation of a patient's condition.  Poor levels of health literacy exist in all countries. 

For example, a 1995 US study found that one third of English-speaking hospital patients could not read or understand basic health materials (Williams et al, 1995):

• Some 42 % could not understand instructions to take medication on an empty stomach.
• 25% did not understand information on an appointment slip.
• 60 % did not understand a standard consent form.

The elderly and those in poor overall health had the worst health literacy.

How Can Low Health Literacy be Overcome or Improved?

IAPO has developed a Policy Statement on health literacy, which calls all stakeholders involved in healthcare to:

• Acknowledge the problem of low health literacy worldwide
• Review the health-related information they produce and how this is communicated
• Revise existing information and produce all future information according to health literacy guidelines like IAPO's

Our Policy Statement can be viewed online or downloaded as a PDF file for you to save, print or distribute. 

Our Health Literacy Guidelines can be used to improve the reach of health information to those with low health literacy.  The Guidelines can be viewed online or downloaded as a PDF file for you to save, print or distribute.

Further Information and Resources

Related Articles from The Patient's Network magazine
The following articles are mostly taken from Issue 18 of The Patient's Network, published in June 2003.  Find out more about Issue 18 and how you can download it in PDF format for free by clicking here.

TPN Issue 18, June 2003: Health Literacy in a Changing World - Naomi Kempner
TPN Issue 18, June 2003: One Strategy Fits All - Anita L Davis
TPN Issue 18, June 2003: IAPO Health Literacy Policy Statement
TPN Issue 18, June 2003: Assisting Health Literacy: Checklist for Materials
TPN Issue 18, June 2003: Health Literacy: the Role of the Pharmaceutical Industry - Danièle Letoré
TPN Issue 18, June 2003: Information: Moving towards a Paradigm Shift - Danièle Letoré
TPN Issue 18, June 2003: Health Literacy: a View of the World - Naomi Kempner
TPN Issue 18, June 2003: The Pitfall of Informed Consent in Clinical Research - Professor Michel Burnier

Related Articles from Other Sources
If you can recommend any articles that we can either reproduce online or link to, with full acknowledgement given to authors and publishers, please email info@patientsorganizations.org.

Related Websites
www.nlhp/cpha.ca/conference/c_log_e.pdf
www.pfizerhealthliteracy.com
www.healthliteracy.com
www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/cbm/hliteracy.html