Health Literacy and Health Behavior

Health literacy is generally understood and defined as people being proactive in their health management in which they seek, inquire, comprehend, and apply health-related information and services to make well-informed decisions and improve their outcomes and overall quality of life. Given this definition, health-literate people are more likely to have healthier behaviors and quality of life compared to people with limited or problematic health literacy. People with inadequate health literacy are more likely to experience emergency care as well as lengthier hospitalization, increased health care costs, higher mortality, increased co-morbidities, inadequate nutrition, and psychological, monetary, and social stressors. Furthermore, people with inadequate health literacy are more likely to experience frustration with and discrimination from their provider and the health care system overall. Granted, inadequate health literacy can affect anyone, regardless of demographics, background, and circumstances; however, people with inadequate health literacy are more likely to stem from the economically and socially disadvantaged or marginalized of society, which creates disparities in health literacy and health care, thereby negatively impacting the individual and the collective equally. Since its conception, health literacy programs and interventions have made tremendous progress to evaluate and improve health literacy among the people and communities worldwide, though inequities and technological, financial, and social barriers remain ongoing challenges. This chapter reviews the conceptual development of health literacy, the association between health literacy and health behavior, and diverse and evolving health literacy typologies, perspectives, and interventions to improve health literacy and health behavior. Future directions of health literacy and the implications thereof are also discussed.