As we all know, it is a challenge to improve health literacy on multiple levels as it requires unique approaches to address the spectrum of individual skills and abilities as well as the demands and complexities of the health care system. This translates into multidisciplinary research and interventions that not only improve individual health literacy skills, but also identify ways the system can integrate health literacy through all aspects of health care delivery.
This special issue on health literacy of the Journal of Health Communication is the largest supplement showcasing leading health literacy research. For the third year in a row, it builds upon the U.S. Agency for Health Care Research and Quality–supported Health Literacy Annual Research Conference. The approach is both quantitative and qualitative, including multiple perspectives and areas of interest for traditional participants in the health care system—payers, insurers, clinicians, patients, and researchers—as well as for policymakers and public health professionals who may be developing programs or innovating system change in the advancement of health from local to global areas.
As the journal continues to advance a pluridisciplinary approach related to health communication and health literacy, the articles assembled by the guest editors Stacy Cooper Bailey, Lauren A. McCormack, Steven R. Rush, and Michael K. Paasche-Orlow are salient for the field and offer applications that ultimately help people attain and maintain better health. The research includes ideas from the United States and Europe and includes sociomedical sciences, communication, public health, medicine, nursing, and anthropology, among other perspectives.
The research and activities published in this journal, the work of the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Health Literacy, and ongoing innovations in communication technology provide renewed hope and promise. Further, the ongoing acknowledgement by world and national leaders to advance health literacy for humankind with policies, programs, and research should continue to be a hallmark that heralds our collective efforts with health literacy that will make a positive difference for generations.