Improving health literacy

Improving health literacy in populations provides the foundation on which citizens are enabled to play an active role in improving their own health, engage successfully with community action for health, and push governments to meet their responsibilities in addressing health and health equity.

Promoting health literacy in all but in particularly marginalized societies is crucial in accelerating progress in reducing health inequities and advancing broader social, economic, and environmental goals outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

WHO promotes and improves health literacy by providing technical support and guidance to Members States to ensure effective management and promotion of health literacy at personal, organizational and systemic levels. To achieve this, WHO:

• supports countries in improving their assessment, monitoring and reporting systems to capture the true burden of limited health literacy using global health literacy measurement tools;
• provides training on health literacy capacity building targeting health professionals; and
• develops new tools to support the implementation of health literacy interventions according to specific public health issues.