What is health literacy?
“Health literacy is about people having enough knowledge, understanding, skills and confidence to use health information, to be active partners in their care, and to navigate health and social
care systems”
Definitions
A more recent definition of health literacy from the US Center for Disease Control (August 2020) covers both the personal and organisational.
Personal health literacy – being able to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for yourself and others
Organisational health literacy – organisations enabling people to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others
By including both the personal and the organisational, this definition shows that health literacy covers the skills and confidence of individuals and the resources provided by society to support health literacy.
What's happening around health literacy in Fife?
We have a local health literacy network here in Fife.
The aim of the Health Literacy Network Fife is to share best practice, information, create links and have a shared direction and vision for Health Literacy across Fife. For further information and details of previous network event please visit our SWAY - see link below.
This video from the Health Literacy Place highlights why we all need to know about health literacy
Other pages in Health promotion service
