Skip to main content

Table 1 HL domains

From: The application of health literacy measurement tools (collective or individual domains) in assessing chronic disease management: a systematic review protocol

Domain

Definition/example

Access

Being able to navigate and find health information—it is more than the availability of information and services. It is mediated by education, culture, and language, by the communication skills of professionals, by the nature of materials and messages, and by the settings in which health-related supports are provided—CEPHL [3].

o for example, I have the skills to find the health information I want.

Understand

Knowledge about a subject or situation and comprehension of the health condition and information—Cambridge Dictionaries [44].

o for example, How confident do you feel you are able to follow the instructions on the label of your inhaler?

Evaluate

To be able to determine whether information/service is applicable to self—to judge or calculate the quality, importance, truthfulness, or value of information—Cambridge Dictionaries [45].

o for example, I have the skills to judge which health information can be trusted.

Communicate

To share information with others (doctor, caregiver, family members, etc.) by speaking, writing, and body language—Cambridge Dictionaries [46].

o for example, I have the skills to describe my health concerns to others.

Use

Adapting and applying information to daily life for disease management—to take, hold, or deploy information as a means of accomplishing or achieving health outcome—Oxford Dictionaries [47].

o for example, I can use the information received from doctor/hospital to set my disease management goal.

Health numeracy

The degree to which individuals have the capacity to access, process, interpret, communicate, and act on numerical, quantitative, graphical, biostatisical, and probabilistic health information needed to make effective health decisions [48].