Health literacy is defined by the World
Health Organization (WHO) as the “cognitive and social skills that determine the motivation and ability of individuals to gain access to, understand and use information in ways that promote and maintain good
health (Martenson and Hensing 2012 AU448: The in-text citation "Martenson and Hensing 2012" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. : 151; see also WHO 1998) There are, according to Nutebeam (2000) AU449: The in-text citation "Nutebeam (2000)" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. , three levels of
health literacy: the basic one, functional
health literacy, that is centered on factual information; the intermediate level or interactive
health literacy that is centered on the development of individual skills and its direct context; and, finally, the critical
health literacy that relate the individual to the community and public policies as well as the behavioral change of a population in its global context, not just the direct or obvious one.
Learn more in:
Management of Tacit Knowledge and the Issue of Empowerment of Patients and Stakeholders in the Health Care Sector