Health Literacy

Discover Health Literacy

Discover MedlinePlus

MedlinePlus is a service of the National Library of Medicine, the largest biomedical library in the world. Use MedlinePlus.gov anywhere, anytime, on any device - for free - to discover high-quality health and wellness information that is reliable, easy to understand, and free of advertising, in both English and Spanish.

Discover information on:

• Health Literacy
• Talking With Your Doctor.

You also can use MyHeathfinder.gov to find information for Talking With the Doctor.

Discover NIH

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the nation’s medical research agency — making important discoveries that improve health and save lives. NIH is made up of 27 Institutes and Centers, each with a specific research agenda, often focusing on particular diseases or body systems.

The primary NIH organization for research on Health Literacy is the NIH Office of the Director.

Discover More

The Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) provides instruction. Webinars often are recorded for future viewing. Check the NNLM Training page for a complete list of programs and schedules. Effective Health Communication and Health Literacy: Understanding the Connection. December 10, 2025

The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP), a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, sets national health goals and objectives and supports programs, services, and education activities that improve the health of all Americans. The Health Literacy Online is a resource that provides everyone with access to accurate and actionable health information in support of learning and skills to promote good health.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) offers Plain Language Materials & Resources to help keep the reader in mind as you make decisions about organization, word choice, and presentation.

The American College of Physicians (ACP) Patient Education Center has created the website Healthcare Transparency: Cost of Care Conversations Resources to help clinicians and patients understand the importance of talking about costs of care and to help them efficiently and effectively address the cost of care issues in the clinical setting.

The University of Minnesota Earle E Bakken Center for Spirituality and Health created Taking Charge of Your Health and Wellbeing to provide the general public with accurate and credible information in order to improve and maintain one's health and wellbeing. They have also created a page Navigate the Healthcare System.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) advocates for the patient with resources such as How to Complain and Get Heard and Questions to Ask Your Doctor.

Library Programs

More than 90 million U.S. adults have low health literacy, which measures the extent to which someone can access necessary health services, as well as how proficiently he or she can understand pertinent health information. Public, school, academic, and special libraries play a key role in making quality health information accessible to all. What role can the public library have during Health Literacy Month or any time of the year?

Promotional and Activity Suggestions:

• Promote health-related resources, services, and programming at your library.
• Partner with local health organizations to bring trusted experts to the library to share best practices and data relating to all kinds of health care topics.
• Libraries could host a family event to have communities discuss what a healthy community looks like to them. There could be a variety of stations with different types of activities to get folks talking and to engage different ages, e.g. a table with building blocks for children to build a healthy neighborhood, or paper and cut-outs of neighborhood buildings where children and families could paste on ways to improve their neighborhood. This could be a hands-on facilitated discussion.
• Libraries could host a community walk from the library with stops at other organizations in the neighborhood. At each stop, there could be a different local agency that has information for community members and a hands-on activity. Along the path, there could be signs with data about the health of their neighborhood gathered from the County Health Rankings website, plus books about health and posters advertising upcoming wellness events. At the end of the walk, have people share their thoughts on the statistics that were shared (the public health department may have more local data and be willing to participate as a potential partner). This could be done through short videos (that could be put on the library and other community websites) or note cards that could then be posted on a bulletin board to capture what the community says.
• Host an NNLM Reading Club book discussion!

Health Literacy Month Handbook: The Event Planning Guide for Health Literacy Advocates from the Institute of Healthcare Advancement is a guide that can be used to create, plan, run, and evaluate events that raise awareness about health literacy. It covers topics ranging from finding people to work with and brainstorming ideas to putting an event together, marketing it, and assessing effectiveness. Throughout the Handbook, you’ll find examples and insights from others who have made Health Literacy Month events happen. Download the handbook from their website.

Staying Healthy is an award-winning curriculum available from the Florida Health Literacy Coalition. It is written at a 4th-5th-grade reading level and is suitable for low-intermediate level ESOL learners and above. Staying Healthy for Beginners is written at a lower reading level, making it more accessible to learners at the beginning level. Order the books

The Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA) is dedicated to empowering people to better health.