Health Literacy

Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information needed to make appropriate health decisions and services needed to prevent or treat illness.

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.

WIC participants may have health-limited literacy levels. You need to know how to meet their special needs.

For more information on this topic, check out the What is Health Literacy? job aid.

More resources can be found on the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality website, also available in Spanish.