Low-Literacy and Illiterate People

Health literacy is a term used to refer to a number of skills that allow people to find, process, and understand information about health and health services, including the correct use of prescription medications. Health literacy may be related to general literacy (the ability to read and write), but it also includes competencies specific to the health context and relates to health-specific problems such as the ability to read and understand the directions on a prescription bottle or package insert. Even in a country where the literacy rate is high, many adults may have difficulty with specific health literacy tasks.