Health Literacy Month

Posted by seancorning on October 4th, 2022 Posted in: Blog

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October is Health Literacy Month – a time when health organizations, literacy programs, libraries, social service agencies, businesses, professional associations, government agencies and other groups can work together to integrate and expand the mission of health literacy – to build a world where our collective efforts will lead to health equity, where all people can attain positive health outcomes. Health Literacy Month was begun over 20 years ago and is now organized by The Institute for Healthcare Advancement.

What is health literacy?

Healthy People 2030, an initiative of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, spotlights two different kinds of health literacy:

    Personal health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.

Organizational health literacy is the degree to which organizations equitably enable individuals to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.

This is a change from previous Healthy People initiative definitions which entirely focused on individual capacity. It highlights the importance of organizations in the health literacy and health information cycle, whether these organizations are creating, promoting, selecting or helping individuals find health information.

Why is health literacy important?

Health literacy can be a crucial factor in people’s health and treatment outcomes. Low health literacy correlates with higher likelihood of hospital stays, lower utilization of healthcare even when available, increased difficulty communicating health issues and needs with healthcare professionals and ultimately higher rates of mortality. The goal of health literacy month and year round health literacy is to increase individual and organizational health literacy to improve health outcomes and health equity.

If you’d like to learn more, check out the free trainings and resources below!

NNLM Health Literacy Related Trainings

• Health Literacy On Demand
• Partners in Public Health: Healthy People 2030 and the Role of Public Libraries in Promoting Health and Health Equity – Part 1 (10/6 3-4pm EST), Part 2 (10/13 3-4pm EST)

Resources

• Health Literacy Month
• Healthy People 2030 Health Literacy
• AHRQ Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit
• UNC Chapel Hill Health Sciences Library Health Literacy Hub
• Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion