To understand and discuss what role health literacy can have on both health outcomes and health

disparities requires one to know the definitions of each of these terms. Health literacy is defined as the
capacity and ability to obtain, process, and understand healthcare information to make proper decisions
about health (Cherik et al., 2018). Health disparities are differences in health that occur due to social,
economic or environmental disadvantages (Mantwill et al., 2015). Health literacy can play major
different roles in the outcomes of an experiment regarding health that can improve the disparities a
community or single person may be experiencing. This can be shown from the two different
experiments completed by those looking for the relation between these two terms.

The first experiment involves the testers trying to determine the role of health literacy and how health
promoting behaviors can be a major factor in managing type two diabetes as well as improving the lives
of any person who may have diabetes. An interesting fact they found while conducting research showed
that in five provinces of Iran, people over 18 years old and over showed that 56.6 percent of the
subjects had inadequate health literacy and only 28.1 percent of people had a high level of health
literacy involving diabetes (Cherik et al., 2018). If the health literacy of these individuals with diabetes
can be improved, it can provide many different improvements to their health. An increase in health
literacy can help prevent or postpone the side effects of diabetes in patients, and it can even reduce
healthcare costs in diabetes. After completing their experiment involving those with diabetes, the
testers have come up with some great results. Based on these results they obtained, they were able to
come up with a conclusion that the more health literate their patients were, the more likely these
patients would adopt more health promoting behaviors (Cherik et al., 2018). This test has shown the
role health literacy can play on health outcomes.

The second experiment describes that health disparities can be a major issue for particular groups that
may fall to those being discriminated and even segregated. The testers believe that health literacy can
be used to explain some of the variation in health disparities that would be otherwise linked to other
socioeconomic factors, such as education or income for example (Mantwill et al., 2015). The study
continues to provide information regarding the possible relation between health literacy and health
disparities, stating that Studies in the US have shown that non-Whites have more often limited health
literacy than Whites (Mantwill et al., 2015). Also factors such as lower income or education have been
found to be associated with lower levels of health literacy (Mantwill et al., 2015). To prove the
correlation to be true, a test was done to obtain the answer. Even though 36 different studies were used
to determine if there was a correlation, the results still came back with scarce results. Some of the
results did give some feedback on the role of health literacy in mediating educational and racial/ethnic
disparities with regard to self-reported health status. However, more studies would be needed to truly
determine if there is a correlation between health literacy and health disparities.

Chahardah-Cherik, Shima MS et al. “The Relationship between Health Literacy and Health Promoting
Behaviors in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes.” International journal of community based nursing and
midwifery vol. 6,1 (2018): 65-75.

Mantwill, S., Monestel-Umaña, S., & Schulz, P. J. (2015). The Relationship between Health Literacy and
Health Disparities: A Systematic Review. PloS one, 10(12), e0145455.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0145455