"Health Literacy" is a descriptor in the National Library of Medicine's controlled vocabulary thesaurus,
MeSH (Medical Subject Headings). Descriptors are arranged in a hierarchical structure,
which enables searching at various levels of specificity.
Degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.
| Descriptor ID |
D057220
|
| MeSH Number(s) |
I02.233.332.186.500 L01.143.450.500 N02.421.726.407.229.500
|
| Concept/Terms |
|
Below are MeSH descriptors whose meaning is more general than "Health Literacy".
Below are MeSH descriptors whose meaning is more specific than "Health Literacy".
This graph shows the total number of publications written about "Health Literacy" by people in this website by year, and whether "Health Literacy" was a major or minor topic of these publications.
To see the data from this visualization as text,
click here.
| Year | Major Topic | Minor Topic | Total |
|---|
| 2009 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2010 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| 2011 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 2012 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2013 | 7 | 1 | 8 |
| 2014 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| 2015 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2016 | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| 2017 | 6 | 4 | 10 |
| 2018 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| 2019 | 4 | 2 | 6 |
| 2020 | 10 | 1 | 11 |
| 2021 | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 2022 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2023 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 2024 | 9 | 1 | 10 |
| 2025 | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| 2026 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
To return to the timeline,
click here.
Below are the most recent publications written about "Health Literacy" by people in Profiles.
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Geed S, Aguirre Guemez AV, Groah S. Predictors of Functional Outcomes After Cervical Spinal Cord Injury From the SCIMS Database: Roles of Segmental Motor Strength, Ethnicity, and Health Literacy. Top Spinal Cord Inj Rehabil. 2026; 32(Suppl 1):1-13.
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Awad C, Martinek AJ, Zou C, Byrd R, Ooi HJ, Do K, Young H, Adhyaru B, Idris M, Arriaga RI. Digital Health Literacy and Tool Adoption in Postoperative Care in a Safety-Net Hospital Population: Mixed Methods Study. JMIR Hum Factors. 2026 Feb 23; 13:e75496.
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Nevill T, Blackmore AM, Keeley J, Yeap Z, Lindly O, Schippers A, Collins R, Langdon K, Mills J, Abbott A, Downs J, Skoss R. Healthcare SAVVI: Exploring health literacy and parents' experiences in supporting the health of children with intellectual disability. Patient Educ Couns. 2026 Apr; 145:109481.
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Williams SA, Shriver RC, Juhala CC. Bridging the Gap: Health Education Needs Among Rural Populations with Chronic Illness and Low Health Literacy in Unincorporated Communities in Southern California. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2025 Dec 23; 23(1).
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Sentell T, Kostareva U, Taira DA, Tolentino NK, Polovina Y, Kreif T, Sumibcay JRC, Dela Cruz MR. Health literacy and the Pacific: A scoping literature review of journal articles. Public Health. 2026 Jan; 250:106051.
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Zhang T, McMillian C, Alberico C. Scroll, Search and Navigate: HIV Health Literacy and Prevention Among Students Attending a Historically Black College/University. Sex Transm Dis. 2026 03 01; 53(3):197-204.
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Sentell T, Roman M, Saiki K, Abrams MA, Jones A, Melendez K, Chevrolet J, Riggle A, Szollosy E, Buchthal OV. Building Community Health Literacy With a Social Network Perspective. Health Lit Res Pract. 2025 Jul; 9(3):e78-e82.
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Williams SA, Lin SF, Jaime S, Carlson B, Keckler M. Examining Health Literacy and Appropriateness of Commercially Developed Patient Education Materials for Adults Living With Diabetes on the U.S./Mexico Border. Clin Nurs Res. 2025 Jun; 34(5):215-222.
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Leblanc NM, Muheriwa-Matemba SR, St Vil N, Alcena-Stiner D, Bond KT, Glazier A, Rosario-McCabe L, Lambert F, Smith M. Couple-centered HIV prevention and care: Endorsement, practice and uncertainty among us healthcare providers in western-central upstate New York. PLoS One. 2025; 20(2):e0299185.
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Gould DA, Lubin RE, McGrew SJ, Smit T, Vujanovic AA, Otto MW, Zvolensky MJ. The Role of Functional Health Literacy in Terms of Hazardous Alcohol Use in Adults with Probable Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Alcohol Use Disorder. J Dual Diagn. 2025 Jan-Mar; 21(1):49-55.