Health Literacy: Tips for Health Managers

Health literacy is how well someone is able to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and care services. It includes the ability to read and understand prescriptions, directions from a nurse or physician, medical forms, and patient education materials. Use the tips in this fact sheet to help families understand health information so they can make good health choices.

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What Is Health Literacy?

Women talking sitting in a couch Health literacy is how well someone is able to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and health care services to make good health choices.

Health literacy includes the ability to read and understand:

Prescriptions
Directions
Medical forms
Patient education materials

Why Is It Important?

Health literacy is important because it affects people’s ability to:

Use healthcare services
Ask questions and share information
Make appropriate health decisions for their families
Manage diseases like asthma and diabetes
Change unhealthy behaviors
Follow through on medical advice

Supporting health literacy includes: Being aware of literacy and language needs:

Helping parents understand basic health information
Modeling skills and actions that help parents and children make healthy choices
Helping parents understand their role in the health of their children
Providing resources and education

Adults with low health literacy are more likely to:

Be in poor health
Make mistakes taking medicine
Spend more time in the hospital
Have higher health care costs
Have more days of lost work because of illness

Children of caregivers with low health literacy are more likely to:

Be sick more often
Not get the care they need
Have unhealthy behaviors
Have trouble with illnesses like asthma and diabetes
Miss more days of school

Low health literacy is greater among people:

With low incomes
With limited education
From minority populations
With limited English proﬁciency (LEP)

10 Things You Should Know

All health information should be easy to read and given to families in their “home language.”
Know your families and their health needs.
Know your families’:
- Language needs
- Level of education
- Cultural backgrounds
Help all families feel at ease if they need help by:
- Keeping information short and simple
- Asking everyone if they need help ﬁlling out forms
- Making it easy for parents to ask for help in different ways such as phone, in person, notes, or through a friend or family member
Help families set goals that promote health. For example, talk with them about adding more fruits and vegetables to their meals or increasing their physical activity in small ways. Work with your families to understand and overcome the barriers they see to reaching these goals.
Create a health literacy action plan for your agency that includes:
- A review of written materials for ease and reading levels
- Feedback from families about what works
Model healthy eating and physical activity habits. Make sure your program’s wellness and nutrition policies are available to families in a way that makes sense to them.
Plan a workshop on health literacy for your staff and for your health service advisory council.
Make sure your health messages are understood by doing the following:
- Focus on key points and repeat
- Listen actively
- Ask families to “teach back” what they have heard
- Confirm verbal messages with written information and pictures. Encourage questions by asking “What questions do you have for me?” instead of “Do you have any questions?”
If possible, attend a health literacy course. This will:
- Help you learn more about health and health promotion
- Help with family engagement
- Assist you in helping parents become better ﬁrst-line caretakers when their children are sick. This helps to avoid unnecessary trips to the emergency room and missing school or work