Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.
- According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, only 12% of adults have proficient health literacy. This means that almost 9 out of 10 adults may lack the skills to manage their health and prevent disease.
- Populations most likely to experience low health literacy:
- Older adults
- Racial and ethnic minorities
- People with less than a high school degree or GED
- People with low income levels
- Non-native speakers of English
- People with a compromised health status
People may speak English well, but still have low health literacy.
- Low health literacy affects an individual's ability to:
- Locate providers and services
- Fill out complex forms
- Understand mathematical concepts such as probability and risk
- Share personal information, such as health history
- Engage in self-care and chronic-disease management
People with low health literacy often have misinformation about the body, and the nature and causes of diseases.
- Individuals with low health literacy skills are more likely to:
- Skip preventative measures
- Use emergency services
- Have a higher incidence of preventable hospitalization
- Have chronic conditions and are less able to manage them
- Have a sense of shame and try to hide reading difficulties
- Health literacy depends on a number of factors, including:
- Communication skills of lay persons and professionals
- Lay and professional knowledge of health topics
- Culture
- Demands of the healthcare and public health systems
- Demands of the situation/context
- Health literacy also includes numeracy skills. Individuals with low numeracy skills lack the ability to:
- Calculate blood sugar levels and other health indicators
- Measure medications
- Understand nutrition labels
- Calculate premiums, co-pays and deductibles
- What is being done to help:
- Locally -- The Minnesota Health Literacy Partnership helps coordinate health literacy efforts across the state.
- The mission of the Partnership is to improve the health of all Minnesotans by promoting health literacy.
- The Partnership's goals are:
- to train health care providers about health literacy
- to empower patients to ask for clear communication
- to share health literacy resources
- Nationally-Many National Organizations are working toward greater health literacy and cultural competency.
- National organizations such as the Institute of Medicine, Agency of Health Quality and Research and the American Medical Association Foundation have tackled the issue with reports and educational campaigns.
- The national Partnership for Clear Communication, supported by the Pfizer Foundation, has also developed a consumer campaign with material available free of charge for distribution by state or local organizations.
- Accrediting agencies and patient safety organizations are starting to address health literacy issues in proposed standards and best practices.
- Several national organizations are researching strategies to improve health literacy.
- For more information contact Marcia Miller, Assistant Director of the Health Law Institute mmiller14@hamline.edu or 523-2625
This fact sheet was adapted U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Quick Guide to Health Literacy, http://www.health.gov/communication/literacy/quickguide/ (last visited Oct. 2, 2007), with help from the Minnesota Health Literacy Partnership http://healthlit.themlc.org/home.html.
Special thanks to the research assistance of Anna Schifsky.