Health Literacy 101: An Introduction to the Field

Health Literacy 101: An Introduction to the Field

Michael Villaire, MSLM

Institute for Healthcare Advancement

This workshop will provide an overview of the scope of low health literacy, including frequencies among the general population, general characteristics,  abilities, and challenges of persons with low health literacy, and the cost of poor health literacy (both in terms of human suffering and dollars).

• Define health literacy and describe the prevalence of poor health literacy in the United States.
• Discuss the general characteristics, abilities, and challenges of those with poor health literacy skills.
• Describe two reasons why health literacy matters in the healthcare system.