Below are the citation and extracts from a recent BMJ editorial. Health literacy is central to HIFA and I look forward to ideas from members on how we can contribute to this growing field. As a first step, I invite HIFA members in different countries to share how they ‘make health information and support available and accessible to people with different health literacy strengths and limitations’. As we have seen with the Ebola crtisis, the role of social science and, in particular, anthropology, is critical to how people obtain and interpret the healthcare information they need to protect their own health and the health of those for whom they are responsible.

CITATION: Health literacy: towards system level solutions

BMJ 2015; 350 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h1026 (Published 24 February 2015)

Cite this as: BMJ 2015;350:h1026

‘In a new resource aimed at low and middle income countries, the World Health Organization has redefined health literacy as “the personal characteristics and social resources needed for individuals and communities to access, understand, appraise and use information and services to make decisions about health.”’

[World Health Organization. Health literacy toolkit for low- and middle-income countries. A series of information sheets to empower communities and strengthen health systems. 2015. www.searo.who.int/entity/healthpromotion/documents/hl_tookit/en/ ]

‘Health literacy was traditionally conceptualised as an individual deficiency in verbal ability, numeracy, or both. It was measured as the equivalent school grade in classroom-style assessments of performance14 or as ability to read and interpret passages of health related text such as instructions on how to take medication… Two recent systematic reviews have added multiple dimensions to the construct of health literacy, including communication skills, motivation, confidence, trust, and the ability to access care…’

‘WHO is exhorting countries to assess and develop their own health literacy responsiveness — defined as “the way in which services, environments and products make health information and support available and accessible to people with different health literacy strengths and limitations.”’

—

Best wishes, Neil

Let’s build a future where people are no longer dying for lack of healthcare knowledge – Join HIFA: www.hifa2015.org