Health & Biomedical Sciences Faculty Publications

Chapter 9: Health Literacy and Plain Language

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

3-21-2024

Abstract

Health literacy refers to the set of functional, interactive, and critical thinking skills that enable an individual to find, understand, assess, and use information to support health-related decisions and actions and to navigate the health environment. Research has established that limited health literacy is highly prevalent, especially among individuals who identify with racially/ethnically minoritized groups, older adults, adults with lower educational attainment, and those living below the poverty level. Addressing limited health literacy is important because of its established association with poor health outcomes. Given its multidimensional underlying concepts and the rapidly evolving health environment, a concerted effort at the national, health system, community, and individual levels is needed to improve health literacy and reduce health disparities, especially in linguistically and culturally diverse groups.

Comments

© 2024 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

First Page

155

Last Page

173

Publication Title

The Handbook of Language in Public Health and Healthcare

DOI

10.1002/9781119853855.ch9

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