Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Health Literacy
Health literacy involves the information that people need to be able to make good decisions about health. There are two parts:
- Personal health literacy is about how well a person can find and understand the health information and services that they need. It is also about using the information and services to make good health decisions.
- Organizational health literacy is about how well organizations help people find the health information and services that they need. It also includes helping them use that information to make good health decisions.
Many different factors can affect a person's health literacy, including their:
- Knowledge of medical words
- Understanding of how the health care system works
- Ability to communicate with health care providers
- Ability to find health information, which may require computer skills
- Reading, writing, and number skills
- Personal factors, such as age, income, education, language abilities, and culture
- Physical or mental limitations
Many of the same people who are at risk for limited health literacy also have health disparities. Health disparities are health differences between different groups of people. These groups may be based on age, race, sex, or other factors.
Health literacy is important because it can affect your ability to:
- Make good decisions about your health.
- Get the medical care you need. This includes preventative care, which is care that focuses on preventing disease and keeping you healthy.
- Take your medicines correctly.
- Manage a disease, especially a chronic (long-term) disease.
- Lead a healthy lifestyle.
One thing that you can do is to make sure that you communicate well with your health care providers. If you don't understand something a provider tells you, ask them to explain it to you so that you understand. You can also ask the provider to write down their instructions.
It sits within Wellness and Lifestyle and Personal Health Issues.
The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the NIH Office of the Director.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Health Literacy
649 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- TELEREHAB-BR: Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Models TrialUniversity of the State of Santa Catarina
- Multilingual Voice Calls to Adjust Long-Acting Insulin for Adults With Type 2 Diabetes and Low Health Literacy in PakistanShifa International Hospital
- New Care Pathways for Supporting TRANSitional CARE From Hospital to Home Using AI and Personalized Digital AssistanceIstituto Nazionale di Ricovero e Cura per Anziani
- Implementing a Pilot Patient Navigator Program to Improve Access to Infertility Care for Underserved PatientsBoston Medical Center
- Wellness & Workforce Solution for Lupus/Lupus NephritisMorehouse School of Medicine
- Promoting Mental Health of Teachers and Caregiver Using a Personalized mHealth Toolkit in UgandaNYU Langone Health
Research already completed
- AI Chatbot for HPV Vaccine Literacy Among Caregivers in JapanThe University of Hong Kong
- Social Media-Based Education on Cancer Screening Awareness in Women: A Randomized Controlled TrialEmine Ergin
- Effectiveness of a Health Literacy-Based Breastfeeding Education ProgramNigde Omer Halisdemir University
- Osteoporosis Awareness in Chronic Spinal Cord InjuryAfyonkarahisar Health Sciences University
- Pilot Cluster RCT of an Indirect Contact Mental Health Literacy Program for 5th-Grade StudentsTokyo University
- Digital Health Literacy and Oocyte Cryopreservation Among Women With Gynecological CancerBenha University
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Start Here
- Health LiteracyNational Institutes of Health
- What is Health Literacy?Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Related Issues
- Be More Engaged in Your HealthcareAgency for Healthcare Research and Quality
- Over-the-Counter Drug Facts LabelFood and Drug Administration
Statistics and Research
- Health LiteracyAgency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Clinical Trials
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Health LiteracyNational Institutes of Health
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Health Literacy. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Health Literacy, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.