The Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies defines health literacy as something that emerges when the expectations, preferences, and skills of individuals seeking health information and services meet the expectations, preferences, and skills of those providing information and services. It emphasizes that health literacy arises from a convergence of education, health services, and social and cultural factors.

According to the textbook, the HMD built on the earlier definition of health literacy as the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. The HMD added key issues related to the individual receiving information, stating that health literacy emerges when the expectations, preferences, and skills of individuals seeking health information and services meet the expectations, preferences, and skills of those providing information and services. The HMD further emphasized that health literacy arises from a convergence of education, health services, and social and cultural factors, meaning it is not solely an individual trait but a product of the interaction between people and the systems that provide health information and care.

Key points

HMD defines health literacy as emerging when the expectations, preferences, and skills of information seekers meet those of information providers.
The definition emphasizes both the individual receiving information and the persons or systems providing it.
Health literacy is described as arising from a convergence of education, health services, and social and cultural factors.
This goes beyond the earlier definition that focused only on an individual's capacity to obtain, process, and understand health information.

How does the Health and Medicine Division (HMD) of the National Academies define health literacy, and what factors does it emphasize?

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