How to Improve Health Literacy: Reaching Underserved Populations

Health literacy is the ability to access, interpret, evaluate, and effectively use health information. For underserved populations, low health literacy can act as an invisible yet powerful barrier, restricting access to preventive care, hindering chronic disease management, and limiting awareness of affordable treatment options. It can also reduce an individual’s ability to navigate healthcare systems, follow medical instructions, and make informed choices that influence long-term well-being.

With the rise of digital health literacy tools and platforms, there is now a unique opportunity to close these gaps by making health information more accessible, culturally relevant, and actionable. These innovations, when paired with a personalized approach and education, can empower individuals from all backgrounds to take an active role in managing their health.

Today, we explore why health literacy is important, the distinct challenges faced by populations with low health literacy, and a range of practical strategies, from leveraging technology to implementing targeted community outreach, that can improve health outcomes while also advancing healthcare affordability.

Why is Health Literacy Important?

World Health Organization (WHO) defines health literacy as “representing the personal knowledge and competencies that accumulate through daily activities, social interactions and across generations. Personal knowledge and competencies are mediated by the organizational structures and availability of resources that enable people to access, understand, appraise, and use information and services in ways that promote and maintain good health and well-being for themselves and those around them.” Limited health literacy is linked to a wide range of negative consequences that affect both patients and the healthcare system itself. The most common ones are: 

• Poorer health outcomes: Patients may be unable to fully understand diagnoses or treatment options, leading to suboptimal care decisions.
• Higher hospitalization rates: Preventable complications often escalate when patients cannot recognize early warning signs or follow treatment instructions.
• Lower utilization of preventive care: Screenings, vaccinations, and wellness programs are less likely to be used when people are unaware of their benefits or how to access them. We have explained why preventive healthcare implementation is important here!
• Increased healthcare costs: Delayed interventions and avoidable hospital visits place a financial burden on providers, insurers, and patients alike.
• Difficulty navigating the system: Low literacy can make insurance forms, consent documents, and prescription labels confusing and inaccessible.

Patients with limited understanding of health information may struggle to follow treatment plans, interpret medical instructions, or effectively navigate insurance and care systems. For healthcare providers and insurers, low health literacy is also a significant cost driver, as miscommunication can result in delayed care, medication errors, unnecessary emergency visits, and inefficient use of resources. Improving health literacy not only enhances patient safety and engagement but also reduces system-wide inefficiencies, optimizes resource allocation, and supports more equitable health outcomes.

Challenges in Underserved Populations

According to C.K. Prahalad, who co-authored the book “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits”, roughly 70% of the global population is earning less than $2.50 a day, positioning them at the bottom of the pyramid. Most companies, even in healthcare, often neglect such an extensive audience because of the low purchasing power. Even though these individuals don’t have the purchasing power individually, together they form a huge untapped market where healthcare organizations can establish a strong presence. Nevertheless, underserved communities often face compounded, interrelated barriers that can significantly limit access to quality care and health information. These barriers are not isolated issues, but often reinforce one another, creating cycles that are difficult to break:

1. Language and cultural differences: Beyond the absence of translation services, there is often a lack of culturally fit materials that resonate with local values, traditions, and health beliefs. Without interpreters trained in both medical terminology and cultural nuance, critical instructions and preventive messages can be misunderstood or ignored.
2. Digital divides: Limited or unreliable internet connectivity, low digital literacy, and the absence of compatible devices can lock people out of telemedicine, remote monitoring, and health apps. Even when technology is available, interfaces not designed for low-literacy users or those unfamiliar with digital tools can discourage adoption.
3. Economic constraints: When income is insufficient to cover basic needs, healthcare can fall to the bottom of the priority list. This can manifest as delayed diagnoses, skipped medications, or avoidance of preventive services. In some cases, transportation costs or the inability to take time off work compound these barriers.
4. Distrust of healthcare systems:  Rooted in historical mistreatment, systemic bias, and underrepresentation, this distrust can drive away potential patients from engaging with healthcare providers or participating in health programs. Efforts to improve health literacy must therefore include trust-building strategies, such as involving community leaders, ensuring provider diversity, and demonstrating consistent, equitable treatment.

Digital Health Literacy: A New Pathway

Digital health platforms can be a game-changer when tailored for accessibility, particularly when they are built with the varied needs of underserved populations in mind. We have already covered how exactly health platforms can foster prominent healthy behavior here!  Effective solutions blend intuitive design with cultural and technological considerations to ensure usability and sustained engagement:

1. Simple, multilingual interfaces: Go beyond word-for-word translation by simplifying medical terminology into plain, everyday language and embedding culturally relevant examples or metaphors. Interactive onboarding in multiple languages and intuitive navigation further empower non-native speakers to confidently access and act on health information.
2. Low-bandwidth mobile solutions:  Build apps that function smoothly on older devices and under low-connectivity conditions, with features like offline access to educational materials, automatic sync when online, and data-light modes that reduce bandwidth consumption without losing critical functionality. Read more about health platform building here! 
3. Visual and audio aids: Use infographics, step-by-step illustrated guides, pictograms, and short instructional videos to convey information quickly. Voice guidance in local dialects and audio prompts for key actions can be especially effective for users with low literacy or visual impairments.
4. Personalized notifications: Implement smart, context-aware reminders for appointments, medication schedules, preventive screenings, and lifestyle tips. These should be customized based on the user’s health profile, cultural norms, language preference, and even optimal times of day for engagement, ensuring messages are both relevant and actionable.

Strategies for Improving Health Literacy

• Community Partnerships: Collaborate with local leaders, NGOs, cultural mediators, and trusted community figures to co-create educational materials, host workshops in familiar settings, and ensure messages are delivered in ways that align with local customs and beliefs. This approach fosters trust and increases the likelihood of engagement.
• Data Solutions: Leverage aggregated wearable, mobile health app, and sensor data to map health trends, identify at-risk groups, and design hyper-targeted interventions. For example, insurers could detect communities with low preventive screening rates and partner with local clinics to address the gap.
• Insurance Incentives: Offer tiered premium reductions or rewards for active participation in preventive health literacy programs, verified through engagement metrics from digital health platforms. This not only motivates individuals but also creates measurable ROI for insurers and employers.
• AI-Powered Personalization: Deploy AI chatbots, digital coaches, or virtual health assistants capable of delivering plain-language, culturally tailored guidance. These tools can provide on-demand explanations of medical terms, step-by-step care instructions, and personalized health tips, adapting dynamically to user preferences and literacy levels.

How Thryve Improves Health Literacy

Improving health literacy is a shared responsibility. Digital health literacy can close critical gaps by making information more understandable, culturally relevant, and accessible, helping individuals take an active role in their own care and make informed decisions that improve long-term health outcomes.

At Thryve, we combine digital health literacy tools with culturally competent outreach, device integration, and secure data infrastructure to help healthcare providers, insurers, and technology companies deliver accessible, affordable, and effective care to underserved populations. Our API ensures that complex health data becomes actionable knowledge, empowering both organizations and individuals to achieve better outcomes. We offer: 

• Seamless Device Integration: Easily connect over 500 other health monitoring devices to your platform, eliminating the need for multiple integrations.
• Standardized Biometric Models: Automatically harmonize biometric data streams, including heart rate, sleep metrics, skin temperature, activity levels, and HRV, making the data actionable and consistent across devices.
• GDPR-Compliant Infrastructure: Ensure full compliance with international privacy and security standards, including GDPR and HIPAA. All data is securely encrypted and managed according to the highest privacy requirements.  

Ready to transform how your organization reaches, educates, and supports underserved populations? 
Book a demo with us today to explore how Thryve can help you deliver measurable impact through digital health literacy.