Q&A: Distinguishing between health and language literacy

Health literacy and language literacy are easily confused. Although they are related, they are distinct. Persons with limited health literacy are easily be viewed as being less willing to participate in or less adherent to their care plans. Because these clients may not fully understand the implications and consequences of delaying treatment, they may appear to feel unmotivated by or not engaged in their care. They may react more to signs and symptoms of illness from lack of understanding, as opposed to taking a proactive approach to wellness. The end result is a tendency to overuse services designed to treat the complications of disease (e.g., emergency departments, hospitals) and underutilize services to prevent those complications (e.g., medications, follow-up appointments with providers, diet and other lifestyle treatment recommendations).

The two commonly confused terms are defined below: 

Health literacy: The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. It involves:

•  Basic literacy skills
• Numeracy skills (e.g., measuring, calculating)
• Knowledge of health topics

Language literacy: A person’s ability to read, write, speak, and compute and solve problems at levels necessary to:

• Function on the job and in society
• Achieve one’s goals
• Develop one’s knowledge and potentia