If achieving health literacy as defined by WHO is to be
a goal, some widening of content and methods will need to
occur. Improving health literacy in a population involves
more than the transmission of health information, although
that remains a fundamental task. Helping people to develop
confidence to act on that knowledge and the ability to work
with and support others will best be achieved through more
personal forms of communication, and through community
based educational outreach. If the goal of promoting greater
independence in health decision-making and empowerment
among the individuals and communities is to be
achieved, there will need to be more sophisticated understanding
of the potential of education to strengthen political
action, and efforts to ensure that the content of health
communications not only focuses on personal health, but
also on the social determinants of health