Why Health Literacy is the Foundation Every Campaign Stands On

A patient leaves her appointment with a new prescription, a printed handout and a phone number for a support program. By the time she gets home, the conversation with her doctor has started to blur, and the handout is what she has to go on. Whether she fills the prescription, enrolls in support and takes her first dose can depend on how clearly that handout was written.

That is health literacy at work, and it is why Health Literacy Month matters to everyone who creates health content. The observance began in 1999, and every October it brings attention to whether people can use the health information they receive.

The most recent national assessment of adult health literacy in the United States found that 12% of adults scored proficient. More than a third scored at basic or below basic, a level where a prescription label or a consent form can be hard to follow. The assessment dates to 2003, and the U.S. Surgeon General’s office still cites it today, which means the patient brochures, enrollment forms and disease awareness sites in market right now are written for that audience.

A responsibility the whole industry shares

In 2020, Healthy People 2030 updated the national definition of health literacy and added a second one alongside it. Personal health literacy describes how well people can find, understand and use information to make health decisions for themselves and others. Organizational health literacy describes how well organizations equitably enable people to do the same.

We find the second definition the most useful one for our industry. It places part of the work with the brand teams, medical writers and agencies who produce health information, and it sets the goal at using information, a higher bar than understanding it.

Where health literacy shows up in campaign work

Health literacy works best when it starts with the first draft. Writing the plain-language version first and adding clinical detail where the audience needs it keeps every page organized around the reader’s next step.

Patient support programs are where that next step carries the most weight. Enrollment forms, benefits verification letters and specialty pharmacy handoffs guide patients through everything between a prescription and a first dose, and they deserve the same creative care as the launch campaign that sent the patient there.

Testing with the people who will use the material shows whether it works. Comprehension testing with patients and caregivers reveals where a reader slows down, and teach-back, where a reader explains the next step in their own words, confirms whether the page did its job. Caregivers belong in that testing, since the national definition includes people making decisions for themselves and others.

Health Literacy Month is a good moment to revisit a piece your team created this year and read it as that patient would, at her kitchen table with the handout in front of her. When the next step is clear to her, the campaign has a foundation it can build on.