To maintain their own health and the health of their families and communities, consumers rely heavily on the health information that is available to them. This information is at the core of the partnerships that patients and their families forge with today’s complex modern health systems. This information may be provided in a variety of forms – ranging from a discussion between a patient and a health care provider to a health promotion advertisement, a consent form, or one of many other forms of health communication common in our society. Yet millions of Americans cannot understand or act upon this information. To address this problem, the field of health literacy brings together research and practice from diverse fields including education, health services, and social and cultural sciences, and the many organizations whose actions can improve or impede health literacy.

Health Literacy: Prescription to End Confusion examines the body of knowledge that applies to the field of health literacy, and recommends actions to promote a health literate society. By examining the extent of limited health literacy and the ways to improve it, we can improve the health of individuals and populations.

Contents

• THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
• COMMITTEE ON HEALTH LITERACY
• Independent Report Reviewers
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Preface
• Executive Summary
• 1. Introduction
  • SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS AND HEALTH
  • LIVING IN A SOCIETY WITH HIGH LITERACY DEMANDS
  • HEALTH LITERACY AS A PUBLIC CONCERN
  • CHARGE TO THE COMMITTEE
  • SCOPE OF THE REPORT
  • REFERENCES
• 2. What Is Health Literacy?
  • DEFINITION OF HEALTH LITERACY
  • DEFINITION OF LITERACY
  • LITERACY IN HEALTH CONTEXTS
  • MEASURES USED IN HEALTH LITERACY RESEARCH
  • NEEDS AND OPPORTUNITIES
  • REFERENCES
• 3. The Extent and Associations of Limited Health Literacy
  • LITERACY IN AMERICA
  • THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF LIMITED HEALTH LITERACY
  • THE ASSOCIATIONS OF LIMITED HEALTH LITERACY
  • REFERENCES
• 4. Culture and Society
  • TRADITIONAL CULTURE
  • MASS CULTURE
  • OPPORTUNITIES TO IMPROVE HEALTH LITERACY
  • REFERENCES
• 5. Educational Systems
  • THE K-12 AND UNIVERSITY EDUCATION SYSTEMS
  • THE ADULT EDUCATION SYSTEM
  • EDUCATION FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
  • REFERENCES
• 6. Health Systems
  • THE CONTEXT OF HEALTH SYSTEMS
  • OPPORTUNITIES IN HEALTH SYSTEMS
  • REFERENCES
• 7. A Vision for a Health-Literate America
• A Data Sources and Methods
• B Commissioned Papers
• C Sample Material from Selected Assessments of Literacy and Health Literacy
• D Committee and Staff Biographies

Support for this project was provided by the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation, California HealthCare Foundation, Commonwealth Fund, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, MetLife Foundation, National Cancer Institute, Pfizer Corporation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views presented in this report are those of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Health Literacy and are not necessarily those of the funding agencies.

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.