Health literacy refers to how well people can understand and use health information.
Health literacy is not just reading and writing. It’s about making sure that health information and services can be accessed, understood, and used by people in their daily lives.
According to a national survey, only 12% of adults have proficient health literacy skills, the level deemed necessary to promote health, prevent disease, and use the U.S. health care system. A lot of different factors – like education, language, and age – affect health literacy. Many of these factors are hard to change. But we can change how we communicate health information.
* National Center for Education Statistics. 2006. The Health Literacy of America’s Adults: Results From the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.
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