
Health Literacy
Professional Resource Brief
- View the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion's Health Literacy. Resources for consumer and professional, including Health Literacy Online (2015), a research-based guide to help with learning how to design health websites, information on the National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy along with other digital health information tools.
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): Health Literacy. Information about research and funding opportunities to improve health literacy as it relates to prevention, healthy living, chronic disease management, patient-centered health care, cultural competence, and health disparities. Includes tools, reports, and patient-education materials. Some materials are available in Spanish. Includes
Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT) and User's Guide: An Instrument To Assess the Understandability and Actionability of Print and Audiovisual Patient Education Materials. (2013).
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Health Literacy Action Plan. Information and tools for health professionals, policymakers, program administrators, advocates, child care centers, and schools to improve health literacy and public health. Features training modules, planning tools, a guide for creating easy-to-understand materials, a blog, and health-literacy activities by region and state.
- Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH): Health Literacy Studies (HLS). Research findings, strategies, and tools for assessing the health-literacy environment, assessing and developing health materials, integrating health literacy into adult education, and raising awareness about health literacy.
- The National Academy of Sciences (NAS): Roundtable on Health Literacy. Discussion papers, workshop summaries, and reports about the challenges facing health-literacy practice and research and approaches to promoting health literacy through mechanisms and partnerships in both the public and the private sector. Includes
Health Literacy Implications for Health Care Reform: Workshop Summary. (2011).
Promoting Health Literacy to Encourage Prevention and Wellness: Workshop Summary. (2011).
Ten Attributes of Health Literate Health Care Organizations. (2012). [Discussion paper].
- MedlinePlus: Health Literacy. Links to information for consumers in English and Spanish about improving health literacy. Includes links to strategies for understanding medical terms, evaluating health information, and talking with doctors.
- National Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC). Tools to increase the capacity of health and mental health programs to design, implement, and evaluate culturally and linguistically competent service-delivery systems to address growing diversity and persistent disparities and to promote health and mental health equity.
- National Institutes of Health (NIH): Clear Communication. Defines health literacy, describes the plain-language approach to communication,
presents information about current research, and links to additional materials
on the topic.
- Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion's Health Literacy. Tools, research findings, reports, and other resources to help health and communication
professionals improve health literacy. Includes
Health Literacy Online (2015), a research-based guide to help with learning how to design health websites
National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy (2010).
- Plain Language: Improving Communication from the Federal Government to the Public. Federal plain-language guidelines, examples, tips, training tools, and background material.
Additional Electronic Resources
- Language
Access Plan. 2023. Washington, DC:.Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
- Effective Communication Tools for Healthcare Professionals: Addressing Health
Literacy, Cultural Competency, and Limited English Proficiency, rev. ed. (2012) Rockville, MD: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). [Online
course].
- National
Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and
Health Care. Washington, DC: Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). [Standards, Implementation Guide].
- Santoro K, Speedling C. 2011. The Case for Investing in Youth Health Literacy: One Step on the Path to Achieving
Health Equity for Adolescents. Washington, DC: National Institute for Health Care Management Research and Educational Foundation (NIHCM). [Issue brief].
Related MCH Digital Library Resources
- Culturally Competent Services resource brief
- Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health professional resource guide
- Translation Toolkit for Health Professionals
Health Literacy: Resource Brief. (February 2013). Updated January 2014, November 2024.
Author: Susan Brune Lorenzo, M.L.S., MCH Digital Library.
Reviewers: Suzanne Bronheim, Ph. D., National Center for Cultural Competence; Olivia K. Pickett, M.A., M.L.S., MCH Digital Library; Shree Mohanty, M.A., M.S., R.D., L.D., Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Region V.
Editor: Ruth Barzel, M.A., MCH Digital Library.