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Health Literacy Online: Building an Easy-To-Use Health Information Web Site

Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

For years, consumer health information has been caught in a Catch-22:  Data show that Web users with limited literacy skills are not using the Internet for health information.  And health information Web sites are not designed for people with limited literacy skills.  The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) has set out to change this.

The Internet is a key source of health information.  In fact, over 60 percent of Americans already use the Internet for their health information needs (Fox, 2009).  As a result, more and more health information and services are moving online.  Yet, the transition to online information delivery presents unique challenges for Web users with limited literacy skills.  For many of these Web users, the Internet is stressful and overwhelming—even inaccessible.  Much of this stress is the result of poorly designed Web sites.

In response, ODPHP undertook the challenge of writing and designing online health information for users with limited literacy skills.  We identified three principles for developing online health content:

  1. Information on a Web site must be easy to locate, navigate, and use.
  2. Health information written for the general public should improve understanding, increase knowledge about the body and the causes of disease, and facilitate healthy decision-making.
  3. To influence behavior change, information must be relevant and motivating, and include specific steps for taking action.

We recruited 750 adults—many of whom had limited education and limited experience with the Internet—to participate in our focus groups and usability studies.  We gained valuable information on how adults with limited literacy skills read information on a computer screen, how they navigate a Web site, and the kind of information they are looking for.

In 2008, based on this research, ODPHP launched the Quick Guide to Healthy Living, a collection of actionable health information and tools written in plain language.  We used the following (user-tested) formula when presenting health promotion information.

  1. Describe the health behavior.
  2. Describe the benefits of taking action.
  3. Provide specific action steps.

When we tested the new site with limited literacy Web users, the response was overwhelmingly positive.

  • "I like this Web site because it gives you the information you want right away.  It gives you the basics, not too much to read."
  • "I like [this Web site] because it’s easy for everyday people like me to read.  No big words or medical terms."

To date, the Quick Guide includes over 60 prevention and wellness topics related to parenting, healthy aging, healthy eating, important screening tests, and more. It is our hope at ODPHP that the Quick Guide to Healthy Living—along with the health literacy and usability principles identified by our research—will serve as a model for online health promotion best practices.  Together, we can build a welcoming, supportive, and user-friendly online environment for adults with limited literacy skills (and the rest of us who would like to receive information about our health in plain language). The Quick Guide to Healthy Living can be found at www.healthfinder.gov/prevention/.

For more information about health literacy, and for more about ODPHP’s and healthfinder.gov’s stories, feel free to reach out to Sandy Hilfiker at ODPHP, at SandraW.Hilfiker@hhs.gov.  Until then, we’ll see you on Twitter—@healthfinder.

We welcome your comments about each story. The best place for doing so is on our Health Literacy Month blog. 

Please share these health literacy stories with others. You are welcome to post a link, send an email, or otherwise tell others about them. To reprint any story, please first contact the author (if contact information is included). Otherwise, please cite the source by adding this tagline "Story reprinted with permission of the Health Literacy Month Storytelling Project. You can find more information and other stories at www.healthliteracymonth.org."

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