Measures of health literacy

"Understanding and using basic health information and being able to navigate the complexities of the health care system are critical to good health. Health literacy can be difficult to assess, however, as it is not only a measure of individuals' understanding of health information at various points in time but also a measure of how well various health care systems have been organized. In addition, there is no agreement upon how to judge the effects of health literacy. Existing measures do not capture enough data to understand fully how health literacy influences health or what can be done to improve health literacy. The Roundtable on Health Literacy held a workshop on February 26, 2009, to examine what is known about measures of health literacy, in particular: the current status of measures of health literacy, including those used in the health care setting, other possible measures that might be used to assess health literacy, and ways in which health literacy measures can be used to assess approaches to health care."--Publisher's description.