Toward a Network Theory of Health Literacy Student Paper.

The conceptualization of health literacy has moved beyond the doctor's office to include a wide range of everyday activities that require understanding and responding to various forms of health information. Much of this occurs in a social environment, where people are likely to involve others in understanding health information and making health decisions. The resources available through one's social connections, or social network, appear to play a role in how health literacy is enacted. However, the assumption of current definitions of health literacy and much of literature in this area is that health literacy exists solely at the level of individuals, not social relations. This paper proposes a network theory of health literacy by demonstrating a theoretical relationship between social capital available through one's social network and health literacy, and suggests that a prerequisite of advanced health literacy is an awareness of one's social network and resources it contains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]