Health literacy is the ability to find, understand, and use health information to make informed decisions about one’s well-being. It plays a crucial role in navigating the complexities of healthcare, from understanding medical instructions to making choices about treatments and preventive care. When individuals have strong health literacy skills, they are empowered to take control of their health, communicate effectively with healthcare providers, and make informed decisions that can improve their quality of life. Ultimately, health literacy helps promote better health outcomes, prevent disease, and foster confidence in managing personal and family health.
Many factors contribute to understanding health and vaccine information, including complex medical terminology, misinformation and access to reliable information, that can create confusion and lead to hesitancy or uncertainty about vaccines. Greater health literacy helps address this and directly impacts how we make informed decisions. For example, when parents and adolescents feel they can speak openly with healthcare providers about their concerns and have them addressed in terms they understand, it builds trust. This trust, combined with an improved understanding of how vaccines work, empowers young people and their parents to confidently make vaccines decisions that protect both individual and community health.
Vaccine misinformation and disinformation, such has myths about vaccines causing autism and infertility, has continued to spread in recent years through social media despite scientific evidence proving otherwise. This undermines trust in vaccines and fuels hesitancy. It is more important than ever to seek information from trustworthy sources that rely on scientific and medical data. Some examples of reputable health websites include the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and major medical and research institutions, such as Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia or Nemours KidHealth, and others. A more complete list of trusted sources can be found here.
A key factor in building health literacy and debunking misinformation is through dialogue. Open communication between young people, parents and healthcare providers allows for questions to be addressed, myths to be debunked, and concerns to be alleviated, which is key to building vaccine confidence and ensuring informed decision-making. Health literacy empowers individuals to take an active role in their health by helping them understand and apply important health information. When young people and their parents have the tools to navigate medical resources, they are better equipped to manage preventive care and stay up to date on vaccines. According to the CDC, strong health literacy is closely tied to better health outcomes because it encourages proactive health management and informed decision-making. By improving health literacy, individuals gain the confidence to make choices that promote long-term well-being for themselves and their families.
