Health Literacy

What is health literacy?

According to the CDC,

  • 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.

Why is health literacy important?

Using health literacy best practices can build trust between providers and patients.

Health Literacy: Checklist for Creating or Evaluating Materials

View this ECRI checklist for written, visual, audio, video, and interactive materials.

View the Word document

Health Literacy Specialist Certificate Program

The Institute for Heath Literacy's (IHA) Certificate Program enables your team to lead patient experience initiatives in your organization, by mastering the fundamentals of evidence-based health literacy practices. 

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Health Literacy for Public Health Professionals

This CDC course aims to educate public health professionals on the importance of health literacy and their role in providing health information and services and promoting public health literacy.

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Writing for the Public

This CDC webinar explains concrete strategies for writing to the public, based in the building BRIDGES approach.

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Fundamentals of Communicating Health Risks

This CDC course helps public health practitioners improve or learn new communication skills for conveying risk to the public.

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