About Health Literacy

Health Literacy

Healthy People 2030 provides the following definitions for health literacy:

Personal Health Literacy is defined as 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 defined as 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. DHHS/ODPHP, 2020

Health Literacy Impacts

Health literacy is one of the strongest predictors of health status and outcomes. People can experience limited health literacy regardless of education, age, or background, and can face:

• Poorer health outcomes
• More ER visits
• Higher health care costs

Supporting and improving health literacy can lead to healthier communities, better care, better health outcomes for patients, and lower health costs.

Organizational Health Literacy and Patient Education at Henry Ford Health

The Organizational Health Literacy and Patient Education team facilitates Michigan Health Literacy and is led by Angela Murphy, MEd, RN, CHES®. The team supports organizational health literacy at Henry Ford Health and provides health literate patient education that meets learning needs and literacy levels of all patients.