Abstract
Objective: This report introduced presentations and discussions of sessions on health literacy at the 21st IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion 2013.
Results: Measures assessing health literacy are needed as tools for supporting individuals who face difficulties in making appropriate health decisions with health information. More comprehensive new scales were introduced at the conference, which had been developed with not only the individual in mind but also the broader society in their definitions of health literacy as a construct. This change reflects the growing realization that health literacy is fundamental in bridging the gap between quality healthcare and an increasingly diverse modern society. Presentations on the European Health Literacy Survey, in particular, highlighted the presence of a social gradient in health literacy along with the vital role of health literacy measures and interventions in reducing health disparities and ensuring equity. Health literacy was regarded as the empowerment; with the recent introduction of many actions worldwide, the communication of much needed health information across various levels of health literacy was observed.
Conclusion: Beyond being a core concept of health promotion, health literacy was shown to be an “umbrella term” under which many salient concepts abound, including equity. It is also one of measurable and modifiable social determinants of health.
