Making healthy choices and finding the way through complex healthcare systems is becoming an increasingly challenging issue in modern societies. People are bombarded with information and misinformation that can be difficult to navigate and relate to. Consequently, this can have an impact on the health of the individual, the use of health services, inequality in health in the population, and the health economy. Health literacy is a determinant of health and therefore important to focus on and prioritise.
Health literacy is a combination of personal competencies and resources that enables us to access, understand, appraise, and apply health information to make healthy decisions. One’s health literacy can be different in different contexts and depends on the requirements and the complexity that we encounter when managing our health. Addressing health literacy on a structural level raises the significance of organisational health literacy, as it deals with the way organisations and systems make information and health services accessible and understandable to people with different levels of health literacy.
As we are all different in terms of biology, level of education, social status, etc., the preconditions for being equally health-literate also differ. Some groups in society, such as refugees, are at greater risk of limited health literacy. However, health literacy can be improved throughout life, but it is good to start promoting the personal competencies and resources for health literacy early in life, for example in the educational system. In addition, there is also a political responsibility to prioritise health literacy on a structural level, and preferably also as a part of health and welfare policies in the Nordic countries.
Over the past 30 years, the Nordic countries, and Sweden in particular, have experienced an increase in the number of migrants and refugees. Refugees’ health problems are often related to the health risks to which they have been exposed in their home country, during their flight, and during resettlement in the new country. In the new country, the encounter with the healthcare service and healthcare personnel is often characterised by communication problems and misunderstandings due to language and cultural differences, which relate to limited health literacy at both individual and organisational level.