Health Literacy: A Survey of the Issues and Solutions

Abstract

Health literacy has been recognized as a pressing issue in providing good health care and holding down health care costs. This article presents various definitions of health literacy, enumerates the statistics and demographics of this significant global issue, provides a survey of the literature with links to the most authoritative Internet resources, and discusses the role the medical library community must take to address the subject of health literacy, especially as it relates to health care professionals. Selected fundamental online resources and literature on this vital topic are reviewed, with links to relevant sources.