Health information — relevance and accessibility (literature review)

Introduction. Health literacy directly impacts global health, social indicators, family relationships, and individual health behaviour. A fundamental element of an effective health system is information for the population on the protection and management of their health and those for whom they are responsible. As an essential skill, medical literacy is necessary for searching, understanding, and analyzing medical data from various sources. Improving people’s health literacy is critical to achieving responsibility for health.

Aim. Analysis of the formation and impact of health literacy on the achievement of sustainable development and other health objectives.

Material and methods. Literature search methods included search queries on Web of Science, Scopus, MedLine, The Cochrane Library databases.

Results. Global access to essential health information is not reflected in official monitoring, indicating the need to improve access to health information to provide more effective care.

The availability and use of reliable health information depend on the integrity of the global health information system. A systemic approach to the problem demonstrates the vital contribution of a vast number and variety of «components”, including health research, publication and dissemination of such research, systematic reviews, Development of guidelines and many different secondary outputs for users.

Conclusion. Lack of access to health information is a social injustice that the world health community cannot afford to ignore. Access to essential health information is a prerequisite and a component of achieving universal health coverage.