Health Literacy Month: Why Understanding Your Health Information Matters as Much as Receiving It
By Cami Grasher
Every October since 1999, Health Literacy Month has asked a simple but often overlooked question: does the person receiving health information actually understand it? The observance was founded by author and health communication specialist Helen Osborne, who wanted to close a gap she saw clearly in her work, that patients were routinely handed information they couldn't fully use, not because they weren't capable, but because it wasn't communicated in a way they could access.
What Health Literacy Actually Means
Health literacy is often mistaken for basic reading ability, but it's a broader skill set entirely. According to the CDC's current framework, health literacy exists on two levels. Personal health literacy is the degree to which an individual can find, understand, and use health information and services to make decisions for themselves and the people they care for. Organizational health literacy is the degree to which the systems around that person, hospitals, clinics, insurance companies, public health agencies, make it possible for people to actually do that. This is a meaningful shift in how the concept has been framed over the past several years: rather than treating limited health literacy as solely a personal shortcoming, it's now understood as a shared responsibility between the individual and the systems communicating with them.
In practice, health literacy involves reading, listening, analyzing, and decision-making skills, all applied specifically to health-related situations: understanding a prescription label, following discharge instructions, weighing treatment options, or simply knowing which questions are worth asking a doctor.
The Numbers Are Larger Than Most People Expect
The scale of this issue tends to surprise people, largely because low health literacy isn't limited to any one group. The CDC estimates that nearly 9 out of 10 English speaking adults in the U.S. have limited health literacy, and the National Assessment of Adult Literacy found that only 12% of U.S. adults have what's classified as "proficient" health literacy skills. Other estimates put the number of Americans who struggle with basic healthcare information at somewhere between a third and nearly half of the adult population.
This isn't only, or even primarily, an issue of reading ability. Limited English proficiency, limited formal education, and communication gaps between providers and patients all contribute, and research consistently shows that even highly educated people can struggle when health information is delivered in dense medical jargon rather than plain language.
Why This Matters Beyond a Single Conversation
The consequences of low health literacy show up in measurable, costly ways. People with limited health literacy are less likely to read healthcare materials, less likely to act on the information they do receive, and less likely to ask their doctor clarifying questions in the moment, often because they don't realize there's a gap in their understanding until later. That combination is linked to skipped medical tests, a harder time managing chronic conditions, and more frequent emergency room visits, since problems that could have been caught or managed earlier often aren't.
The financial scale is significant too: some estimates put the cost of low health literacy to the U.S. economy at roughly $240 billion per year, a figure driven largely by preventable complications, unnecessary emergency care, and poorer chronic disease outcomes.
A Two Way Problem With a Two Way Fix
Part of what makes Health Literacy Month useful is that it doesn't put the entire burden on patients to simply "understand better." A recurring theme across health literacy research is that healthcare providers often overestimate how well information has landed, sharing instructions with a patient or family member, assuming they understood, and only learning much later that confusion or a misunderstanding occurred. That's a communication failure as much as a comprehension one.
This is why many hospitals and health systems now treat plain language communication as a specific, teachable skill. Research on the subject is fairly consistent: people are more likely to read, understand, and act on health information when it's written in plain language rather than clinical terminology, and organizations that adopt this approach tend to see fewer misunderstandings translate into missed care.
How the Month Is Marked
Health Literacy Month brings together an unusually wide range of participants, hospitals, health centers, literacy programs, libraries, social service agencies, professional associations, government agencies, and consumer groups, all working under the shared goal of making health information genuinely usable. Activities during the month often include webinars and workshops for healthcare communicators, campaigns encouraging plain language rewrites of patient materials, and public recognition of "Health Literacy Heroes," individuals or organizations doing meaningful work to close the gap.
What You Can Do
You don't have to work in healthcare to participate. A few practical starting points:
Ask directly when something isn't clear. If a diagnosis, medication instruction, or next step doesn't make sense, say so; providers would rather clarify in the moment than have you leave confused.
Bring someone with you, or take notes. A second set of ears catches details that are easy to miss under stress or unfamiliar terminology.
Ask your provider to explain something back in plain terms if medical language is doing more to obscure than clarify.
If you work in healthcare or health communication, consider reviewing your own patient materials for jargon, and testing whether they're genuinely understandable to someone outside the field.
The Takeaway
Health literacy isn't really about intelligence or education level. It's about whether the system delivering health information is actually built to be understood. With such a large share of American adults affected, Health Literacy Month is less a niche observance and more a reminder that clear communication is itself a form of preventive care. Understanding your own health information, and asking for it in a form you can actually use, is one of the most concrete ways to advocate for yourself inside a healthcare system that doesn't always make that easy.
This article is for general educational purposes. If you find yourself confused by medical information, instructions, or a diagnosis, it's always appropriate to ask your healthcare provider to explain it more clearly, that's a reasonable and expected part of good care, not an inconvenience.
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