Abstract
Understanding the Impact of Health Literacy on Disparities in Health Outcomes Health literacy is described as “the degree to which individuals can obtain, process, and understand the basic health information and services they need to make appropriate health decisions.” (AHRQ, 2011). At the time of the first systematic review on health literacy in 2004, 80 million, nearly 36%, of American adults were estimated to have limited health literacy, with higher rates found in certain population subgroups (Berkman, 2004). A recently updated systematic review of evidence of health literacy found differences in health literacy level were consistently associated with health outcome disparities such as increased hospitalizations, greater emergency care use, lower use of mammography, lower receipt of influenza vaccine, poorer ability to demonstrate taking medications appropriately, poorer ability to interpret labels and health messages, and, among seniors, poorer overall health status and higher mortality. Health literacy appeared to mediate the effect of race (and gender in some studies) on selected outcomes, underscoring its importance.
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