Addressing health literacy responsiveness in diabetes

Abstract

Diabetes burden is a major long term challenge for individuals, communities, services and systems. Addressing health literacy is a key underpinning issue of health inequities and to inform services and policies in generating appropriate responses to the needs of people with diabetes. The concept of health literacy has evolved from basic functional skills in reading and numeracy to a multidimensional one encompassing the abilities and resources regarding access and accessibility to health information and services in order to maintain good health taking into account the various contexts of individuals. The importance of health literacy is pertinent given the current need to integrate the growing digital invasion and the urgent need for informed and accessible interactions with media and services (eHealth literacy). Consequently, health care services and providers, as well as policies and decision makers have to recognise and cope with diverse health literacy needs, especially for the most vulnerable. Several promising development projects are on-going in Europe and worldwide to address health (and eHealth) literacy for the co-design and scaling-up of potentially sustainable interventions and policies regarding the prevention and the management of diabetes.