Health Literacy: Developments, Issues and Outcomes

Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand the basic health information and services that are needed to make appropriate health decisions. Health literacy is associated with multiple health outcomes, including hospitalisation, global measures of health, and chronic disease management. In this book, the authors present current research in the study of the developments, issues and outcomes in health literacy. Topics include designing communication to improve comprehension in populations at risk for low health literacy; mental health literacy in sub-Saharan Africa; cancer and health literacy; mental health literacy and its impact on youth mental health and ADHD; ways to integrate health literacy into health professional practices; the health literacy of children who are looked after by the State; illness recognition and aggression-dangerousness perception of schizophrenia; and the health belief model and health literacy.