English Summary

What is Health Literacy?

Health literacy equips individuals with the skills and knowledge to manage their health and well-being in daily life. The definition most commonly used in Europe was developed in 2012 by the European Health Literacy Survey consortium (HLS-EU) as a basis for measuring the health literacy of populations:

Importantly, health literacy is relational, meaning it develops through interactions with others, such as healthcare professionals, family members, caregivers, and colleagues. Therefore, fostering health literacy is a shared responsibility, not just an individual one.

Why strengthen health literacy?

Individuals with lower health literacy tend to make less healthy choices, engage in riskier behaviours, have worse overall health, and struggle with self-management. This also leads to higher healthcare costs and inefficient use of health services. Limited health literacy remains a significant public health challenge across most European countries, with strong evidence linking it to poor health outcomes.

Research indicates that health literacy is not equally distributed across different sociodemo-graphic groups. In the second European Health Literacy Survey (HLS19), conducted across 17 countries, between 25% and 72% of respondents were found to have limited health literacy.

Efforts to boost health literacy aim to empower individuals to take an active role in managing their health, whether it involves promoting well-being, preventing illness, or navigating healthcare services. These initiatives also strive to foster stronger partnerships between patients and healthcare providers in handling both short-term and long-term health conditions. From an economic viewpoint, the importance of health literacy is amplified by ongoing social and demographic shifts, such as:

  • An aging population and rising life expectancy, leading to greater demand for healthcare services.
  • A growing prevalence of chronic conditions that necessitate ongoing self-care and monitoring.
    Widening social disparities, including the increasing cultural diversity within communities.
  • Shifts in patient roles from passive care recipients to proactive participants who seek more control over their health decisions.
  • The escalating complexity of healthcare systems, which can be challenging to navigate.
  • A surge in digital health information, coupled with the spread of misinformation and "infodemic" challenges.
  • Increasing skepticism toward public health authorities, emphasizing the need for trustworthy and accessible health information.
  • The EU Strategy Together for Health [13] included health literacy as one of the key starting points for the development of citizens’ empowerment.
  • The United Nations ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council) Ministerial Declaration on Health Literacy of 2009 included the following call to action: “We stress that health liter-acy is an important factor in ensuring significant health outcomes and in this regard, call for the development of appropriate action plans to promote health literacy.” [14]
  • Nairobi Call to Action for Closing the Implementation Gap in Health Promotion [15]: To advance the health literacy and health behaviour agenda, policy is needed to generate actions that support empowerment, information and communication technologies as well as to build and apply the evidence base, e. g. by developing systems to monitor, evaluate, document and disseminate health literacy.
  • Health Literacy – The Solid Facts – WHO Regional Office for Europe [16] makes the case for policy action to strengthen health literacy especially on an organizational and systemic level.
  • WHO Shanghai Declaration [17] calls for the development, implementation and moni-toring of intersectoral strategies at national and local levels to strengthen health litera-cy in all populations.
  • Montevideo Roadmap 2018–2030 on NCDs as a Sustainable Development Priority [18]: Health literacy has the potential to reduce the prevalence and impact of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).
  • WHO Declaration of Astana on Primary Health Care [19] encourages the improvement of health literacy through reliable information: “We will promote health literacy and work to satisfy the expectations of individuals and communities for reliable information about health. We will support people in acquiring the knowledge, skills and resources needed to maintain their health or the health of those for whom they care, guided by health professionals.”
  • Health Literacy for People-Centred Care: Where Do OECD Countries Stand? [20]: Health literacy is currently being addressed by OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) Member States and has been highlighted by the OECD in its recent “skills outlook” [21].
  • International Union of Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE 2018, revised 2023): The Position Statement on Health Literacy: a practical vision for a health literate world points to the need to support health literacy policy, practice and research at a global level [22, 23].
  • Adelaide Statement II on Health in All Policies [24]: Education improves health literacy, which, in turn, influences health through behaviour changes that impact children, their families and wider communities.
  • WHO European Roadmap for Implementation of Health Literacy Initiatives throughout the Life Course [25].
  • WHO Regional Office for Europe Flagship Initiative Behavioural and Cultural Insights: Health literacy is seen as one of the pillars of this initiative [26–28].
  • Geneva Charter for Well-Being [29]: Developing health literacy is seen as a priority throughout the life course and should start in early child development and education. This includes the necessity for international collaboration to sustainably improve health literacy.
  • As a call to European-wide action, the Council of Europe in Strasbourg launched a Guide to Health Literacy contributing to building trust and equitable access to healthcare [30].
Skip to content