Health literacy matters

People need trustworthy information to make decisions about health but…

• 5 million adults cannot find relevant data in standard health information
• 1.7 million are unable to explain symptoms and feelings over the phone
• 1 million cannot follow a letter from a GP surgery or hospital department
• 6.5 million cannot measure or record height and weight on a chart[1]
• 9 million people are unable to use digital tools without help[2]

UK information skills

• 1 in 6 have very low literacy skills[3,4]
• up to 1 million people cannot speak English well or at all[5]
• 50% of the population are at or below primary school numeracy level[6]
• Older people are likely to have lower health literacy[7]

What does this mean for health?

• More health inequality
• Less ability to self-care
• More preventable ill health and death[8]
• Less trust in healthcare professionals
• General negativity towards health and healthcare[9]

Let’s tackle this inequality gap and create health literate information for all:

• Involve users in the development
• Make information easy to access, use and navigate
• Make it easy for users to give feedback
• Promote information so it reaches the people who need it most
• Aim for a reading age of 9-11 for health information[3,4]

Health literate information is not ‘dumbed down’, it helps ‘level up’.

References

1. Rowlands G, Protheroe J et al, 2015. BJGP, 65(635): e379-e386. bjgp.org/content/65/635/e379
2. Lloyds Bank, 2020. www.lloydsbank.com
3. Survey of Adult Skills 2015 oecd.org/skills/piaac
4. Skills for Life 2011 assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/36000/12-p168-2011-skills-for-life-survey.pdf
5. www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-by-ethnicity/demographics/english-language-skills/latest
6. www.nationalnumeracy.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/Our_year_in_numbers/national_numeracy_day_2019.pdf
7. Functional health literacy and health-promoting behaviour in a national sample of British adults https://jech.bmj.com/content/61/12/1086.short
8. National Voices, 2017. www.nationalvoices.org.uk
9. Gupta C et al, 2014. J HealthCommun, 19(0 2): 44–60. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Published by the Patient Information Forum Ltd. June 2023. Review date: June 2026.

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