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Health Literacy

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Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics

Abstract

Health literacy is an increasingly essential competency required of today’s citizens. Similar in nature to literacy, in general, adequate health literacy is associated with better health outcomes than inadequate or low health literacy. Encompassing a broad array of overlapping skills, health literacy can impact one’s ability to obtain health services, especially high-quality timely and tailored health services, as well as the ability to act on desirable health recommendations. In the context of health equity issues, and the notion of health as a human right, health literacy is increasingly identified to be of paramount importance, and those who lack the will to foster a health-literate citizenry are likely to see wider health gaps and disparities than we see today. This essay describes the concept of health literacy, its importance as a health access and management issue, and the bioethics of failing to counter low health literacy wherever it exists.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health Sciences & Professional Studies Sciences, York College, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Ray Marks

  2. Department of Health and Behavioral Studies, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Ray Marks

Authors
  1. Ray Marks
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Correspondence to Ray Marks .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Duquesne University Center for Healthcare Ethics, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Henk ten Have

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© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Marks, R. (2015). Health Literacy. In: ten Have, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05544-2_455-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05544-2_455-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-05544-2

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