“Every October, we celebrate Health Literacy Month — a time to recognize the importance of making health information easy to understand and the health care system easier to navigate.

This year, we’re also highlighting Healthy People 2030’s updated definition of health literacy! A team of experts recently split the definition into 2 parts:

• Personal health literacy: The degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.
• Organizational health literacy: The degree to which organizations equitably enable individuals to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.

Among other changes, this new definition acknowledges that organizations have a responsibility to address health literacy — and emphasizes people’s ability not just to understand health information but also to use it.”

Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion – OASH  (October Is Health Literacy Month! – News & Events | odphp.health.gov)