Page 82 - Dasar Literasi Kesihatan Kebangsaan

Health literacy is an important factor in ensuring significant health
outcomes. It means more than being able to access health information
by accessing social media, web sites, reading pamphlets and following
prescribed health-seeking behaviours. It should equip persons with
the ability to exercise critical judgement on health information and
resources, as well as the ability to interact and express personal and
societal needs for promoting and adopting behaviours and practices
contributing to better health and well-being. By improving people’s
access to understandable and trustworthy health information and

their capacity to use it effectively, health literacy is critical to both
empowering people to make decisions about personal health,
and in enabling their engagement in collective health promotion
action to address the individual and social determinants of health.

Improving health literacy of a population is central to improving
the populations health and well-being, including and especially
among the most disadvantaged and marginalized groups.
WHO is happy to have collaborated with the Malaysian government to

develop the National Health Literacy Policy (DLKK).

DR RABINDRA ABEYASINGHE
WHO REPRESENTATIVE TO MALAYSIA,
BRUNEI DARUSSALAM AND SINGAPORE

VI NATIONAL HEALTH LITERACY POLICY