Health Literacy: Speak Plain Language: What is health literacy?

Healthy People 2030 addresses both personal health literacy and organizational health literacy and provides the following definitions:

• Personal health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.
• Organizational health literacy is the degree to which organizations equitably enable individuals to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.

These definitions are a change from the health literacy definition used in Healthy People 2010 and 2020.  The new definitions:

• Emphasize people’s ability to use health information rather than just understand it
• Focus on the ability to make “well-informed” decisions rather than “appropriate” ones
• Incorporate a public health perspective
• Acknowledge that organizations have a responsibility to address health literacy

More Links to Healthy People 2030

Personal health literacy is associated with racial/ethnic minority status, age, poverty, health insurance coverage, educational attainment, language spoken before starting school, and self-reported health.

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