Advancing health literacy: a global challenge for the 21st century

The most recent United States health objectives for the nation published in Healthy People 2010 contain for the first time an objective to improve health literacy. This objective forms part of an entirely new chapter on Health Communication in the report. The objective is very general-- to improve the health literacy of persons with inadequate or marginal literacy skills--and it is presented as a developmental objective on the basis that there is no established measure of health literacy which could be used to monitor progress in relation to this target. This is not the first time that a government has targeted improvements in health literacy. For example in 1993 a Report to the Australian Government Goals and Targets for Australias Health in the Year 2000 and Beyond recommended three goals for health literacy. These concerned improving general language skills and literacy levels in the population; improving knowledge and health literacy to enable people to make informed choices about health; and improving knowledge and health literacy in ways that enable people to take an active role in bringing about change in environments which influence their health. (excerpt)