New directions in research on public health and health literacy

Abstract

Numerous calls for a public health approach to health literacy and visions of a health literate society have appeared in recent years. Yet, many gaps in what we know about and do to improve health literacy remain. Major developments at the national level in the last decade help define the role of health literacy in creating better public health and have set the stage for new investigations in public health and health literacy. Four frameworks are examined for their usefulness in posing new questions about public health and health literacy: Healthy People, the Ten Essential Public Health Functions, health promotion, and health disparities. Each of the frameworks generates questions and uses methods that can produce new findings about health literacy. Using the frameworks will open new investigations into population health and health literacy improvement at multiple levels.