INVESTIGATIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HEALTH LITERACY AND HEALTH OUTCOMES IN VULNERABLE POPULATIONS FROM A PUBLIC HEALTH PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The importance of health literacy in influencing health outcomes and effective communication is increasingly being recognized. Health literacy is the ability of an individual to access, understand, evaluate, and apply health information to make informed decisions. Importantly, high health literacy levels are positively associated with better health outcomes, which highlights the significance of health literacy in enhancing better health. Consequently, health literacy has quickly gained the interest of researchers, policymakers, and clinicians, even though it is a fairly new term in the healthcare sector, because of its significant influence on health and well-being.  There is still a great deal of misunderstanding about the notion and how it relates to healthcare outcomes, despite the serious consequences of low health literacy. This article's goals are to describe the extent of low health literacy as a concept and investigate strategies that researchers and clinicians might use to lessen its detrimental effects on health outcomes.  First, a synopsis of the main definitions of health literacy is given.  The ideas of gathering, analyzing, and applying knowledge then provide a framework for talking about the difficulties associated with low health literacy as well as ways to overcome it.  In their conclusion, the authors point up study topics that are necessary to improve the way health literacy is conceptualized.