Website of the Department of Health

It has been described in terms of three levels of skills, these are:

Functional health literacy
Having the sufficient basic skills to function in everyday life

Interactive health literacy
More advanced skills in interpreting information from different sources and balancing these in decision-making

Critical health literacy
The application of skills and analysis of information to exert control and participate in managing own health and contributing to wider decision making (Nutbeam 2000)

Health literacy has also been described as four domains of health literacy. These are

• fundamental literacy (basic skills of literacy, language and numeracy), 
• science literacy (a need to understand the science), 
• cultural literacy (understanding how health can be influenced by culture –in the widest sense) and 
• civic literacy ( understanding of what it means to be a citizen and how this might relate to health, an individuals behaviour and its impact on society). Civic literacy in this context might relate to examples such as immunisation and health protection (Zarcadoolas et al, 2005)

There have been many studies examining the link between ‘health literacy’ and the effective prevention, diagnosis and treatment of many different health conditions. This issue has been studied in different social groups in a wide range of countries. Generally, the research has found that low levels of literacy, language and numeracy (LLN) skills make it less likely that an individual will be able to navigate effectively the health care system to receive the preventative, curative and maintenance treatments, advice and information they require. These skills are seen as an essential health literacy tool. Limited LLN skills are thus intimately linked with limited health literacy. This is why the Skilled for Health Programme is part of the wider health literacy agenda.