Health Literacy

What is Health Literacy?

Health literacy is about a person’s ability to understand and use information to make decisions about their health.

a formal definition of health literacy:

In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) defined health literacy as
“the personal characteristics and social resources needed for individuals
and communities to access, understand, appraise and use information
and services to make decisions about health.” WHO goes on to say that
health literacy includes being able to communicate and act on these
decisions. (WHO, 2014)

Why is Health Literacy Important?

There is a crisis in adult literacy that directly impacts on people’s health.

Did you know?
In the UK 7.1 million adults read and write at or below the level of a nine-year-old and, critically, 43% of adults do not understand written health information.

Low health literacy has been linked to a range of problems including:

• unhealthy lifestyles and poor general health
• low use of preventative services, like vaccinations and screening
• difficulty taking medicines correctly
• increased A&E attendances and hospital admissions
• reduced life expectancy

It’s estimated that health literacy-related problems like these account for up to 5% of national health spending.

Health literacy is also a health inequality issue. There is a close link between socio-economic deprivation and low health literacy. (NHS, 2025)

How can we improve Health Literacy?

See the resources available below.

• NHS Health Literacy manual: https://service-manual.nhs.uk/content/health-literacy
  
• There is also a free NHS E-learning programme, designed to help all NHS staff with improving awareness and issues surrounding health literacy – you can find it here: Health Literacy – elearning for healthcare
  
• National Institute for Health and Care Research – Health literacy: how can we improve health information?

You can read in-depth about improving health literacy and what Knowledge and Library Services are doing here: Improving health literacy | NHS England | Workforce, training and education

Other hints and tips, look out for misinformation and disinformation.

Misinformation is the spread of false information without the intent to mislead. Those who share the misinformation may believe it is true, useful or interesting, and have no malicious intent towards the recipients they are sharing it with.

Disinformation is designed or spread with full knowledge of it being false (information has been manipulated), as part of an intention to deceive and cause harm. The motivations can be economic gain, ideological, religious, political or in support of a social agenda among others. Both misinformation and disinformation may cause harm, which comprises threats to decision-making processes as well as health, environment or security.The key difference between disinformation and misinformation is not the content of the falsehood but the knowledge and intention of the sender.