Peer-reviewed article
Health Literacy in Pediatric Care: Evidence, Gaps, and Opportunities.
Alyssa Coffin, Alexander F Glick, H Shonna Yin ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This review examines health literacy in pediatric care—the ability of families to understand, access, and use health information. Limited health literacy is common among low-income families, minoritized communities, and non-English speakers, and is linked to worse health knowledge and outcomes. The paper identifies that evidence-based strategies like teach-back methods are underused, and that digital health tools present both opportunities and risks. The authors call for health literacy principles to be embedded in healthcare policies, clinical practices, and education.
Key points
- Limited health literacy disproportionately affects families with lower income, minoritized racial/ethnic backgrounds, lower educational attainment, and non-English speakers
- Limited health literacy is associated with decreased disease-specific knowledge, suboptimal health behaviors, and worse clinical outcomes
- Health literacy-informed strategies can improve comprehension and outcomes, but best practices such as teach-back remain underutilized
- E-health literacy (applying health literacy skills to digital information) is an evolving dimension as families increasingly use online health resources
- Organizational health literacy—how effectively healthcare systems support equitable communication—remains infrequently assessed or implemented
Limitations
This is a review paper that synthesizes evidence rather than presenting primary research data, so it does not quantify the prevalence of limited health literacy or provide specific outcome measurements from interventions. The document does not specify which countries or regions are addressed, limiting geographic applicability.
Abstract
Health literacy is a foundational component of providing accessible pediatric care, influencing whether families can understand, access, and use health information. As families increasingly rely on online health resources, health literacy skills applied to digital information, or e-health literacy, has become an evolving dimension of pediatric health literacy. The concept of health literacy extends beyond an individual's abilities, intersecting with the demands placed on individuals by healthcare systems. There is a growing focus on organizational health literacy (OHL), which reflects how effectively systems support equitable communication, but this remains infrequently assessed or implemented. Limited parent, child, and adolescent health literacy is common and disproportionately affects families with lower income, minoritized racial/ethnic backgrounds, lower educational attainment, and who use languages other than English for care. Limited health literacy has been associated with decreased disease-specific knowledge, suboptimal health behaviors, and worse clinical outcomes. Although health literacy-informed strategies can improve comprehension and outcomes, best practices, such as teach-back, remain underutilized across pediatric care settings. The rapid expansion of digital tools offers new opportunities to enhance health literacy-informed communication but also introduces challenges related to equity, accuracy, and safety. Advancing pediatric health literacy requires coordinated efforts: embedding health literacy principles into institutional and national policies, integrating universal health literacy precautions into clinical workflows, expanding clinician and patient health literacy education, and advancing health literacy-focused research, including on digital interventions and artificial intelligence (AI)-supported communication. Prioritizing these efforts is essential to creating health literate-systems that enable all families to access, understand and use health information.