Health-literate individuals develop a growing mastery of knowledge, skills, and behaviors in four key areas critical to healthy living:

• Acceptance of personal responsibility for lifelong health. Health-literate individuals acknowledge that they have some control over their health, incorporate health-related knowledge into everyday behavior, and make a lifelong commitment to healthy living.

• Respect for and promotion of the health of others. Health-literate individuals understand and acknowledge the effects of personal behavior on the health and well-being of others. In addition, they understand the influence that people have on the environment and the way in which elements within the environment affect the health of groups and individuals. They translate this understanding into concern for the health of others in the family, school, peer group, and community.

• An understanding of the process of growth and development. Health-literate individuals understand and acknowledge the aspects of physical, mental, emotional, and social growth and development common to all people as well as those aspects that are unique to individuals. They respect the dignity of all individuals and recognize that people continue to develop throughout their lives.

• Informed use of health-related information, products, and services. Health-literate individuals select and use available health-related information, products, and services carefully and wisely. Being health literate involves the ability to think critically about health-related information and be a selective consumer of health-related services and products.

The four unifying ideas of health literacy are central themes throughout this framework and are reiterated and reinforced in a variety of contexts.