Health Literacy: More Than a One-Way Street

Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.—Plutarch The following are the universally fundamental laws of literary communication: 1. One must have something to communicate; 2. One must have someone to whom to communicate it; 3. One must really communicate it, not merely express it for oneself alone. Otherwise it would be more to the point to remain silent.—Friedrich Von Schlegel I commend Drs. Volandes and Paasche-Orlow (2007) on their effort to focus our collective energy on justice and health literacy in the United States healthcare system. Linguistic literacy can be defined as “an individual's ability to read, write, speak in English, compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job, in the family of the individual and in society ” (Workforce Investment Act of 1998, n.p.). This definition is useful because it includes the ability to both deliver and receive information in a way that is mutually understood. By analogy, one can define health literacy to include the ability to both transmit and comprehend health-related information. This process requires at least two individuals who are literate in the medium of communication. However, much of the work on health literacy focuses primarily on the patient's ability to comprehend and use health-related information. Here, I will discuss how the inclusion of multiple stakeholders in the definition of health literacy leads to additional recommendations for improving ou