Six out of 10 adults in Korea show an appropriate level of understanding health information
Aug 07, 2025
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The ability to understand health information is 'the ability to find, understand, and utilize health information or services necessary for health-related decisions', and its importance as a key factor among health determinants is increasingly being emphasized.
In this regard, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention evaluated the level of understanding and use of health information of the Korean people and published the results of identifying vulnerable groups with low understanding of health information in a specialized journal (Epidemiology and Health).
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed a tool to measure health information comprehension and introduced it to the 2023 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The health information comprehension ability measurement tool used in the survey consisted of a total of 10 questions, which consisted of disease prevention (3 questions), health promotion (1 question), health management (4 questions), and resource utilization (2 questions), and 30 or more out of a total of 40 points (a 4-point scale for each question) were evaluated as the level of health information comprehension ability 'appropriate'.
As a result of analyzing the data of 5,906 adults who participated in the 2023 National Health and Nutrition Survey, 60.4% of adults in Korea were found to have the ability to understand health information at the level of 'appropriate'.
By area, the highest understanding was shown in the area of health care that understands explanations from doctors and pharmacists or educational materials for patients, while the understanding of the area of resource utilization that judges and utilizes disease prevention or information obtained was low.
By demographic and sociological characteristics, women (62.2%) were higher than men (58.6%), and the younger the age, the higher the level of comprehension, so the ability to understand health information in their 20s was 70.5%, about twice as high as those over 70 (36.0%). In addition, the higher the income and education level, the higher the ability to understand health information.
By health behavior characteristics, people who practice healthy lifestyles such as non-smoking, sufficient physical activity, and participation in health checkups tended to have a higher level of understanding of health information than those who did not.
Lim Seung-kwan, head of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, `It is significant that we have developed a measurement tool for the ability to understand health information and introduced it into the National Health and Nutrition Survey to systematically grasp the level of understanding of the people and related factors.'"We will strive to improve the health level of the people and improve health equity by reorganizing the National Health Information Portal and promoting the development of customized health information so that all citizens, including the elderly and the vulnerable group of health information with low education level, can easily access and utilize health information."
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
