Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research 23 (11): 2645-2656, 2015 ISSN 1990-9233 © IDOSI Publications, 2015 DOI: 10.5829/idosi.mejsr.2015.23.11.10160 Corresponding Author: Hanan A.E. Alkorashy, Nursing Administration and Education Department, College of Nursing, King Saud University, KSA and Nursing Administration Department, Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University, Egypt. E-mail: halkorashy@ksu.edu.sa. 2645 Nursing Perspectives on Health Literacy Challenges and Strategies: A Systematic Review Hanan A.E. Alkorashy and Hazel N. Villagracia 1,2 1 Nursing Administration and Education Department, College of Nursing, King Saud University, KSA 1 Nursing Administration Department, Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University, Egypt 2 Abstract: The challenges of health literacy have been observed to be inconsistent. However, many variables have been found to be correlated with health literacy across the globe. This systematic review thoroughly investigated the relationships between health literacy interpretation and the challenges faced during the delivery of key components of interventions in health literacy education. It was done using the 15 studies with 7,383 subjects. The three main variables of the study were the following: 1) language literacy, which most strongly influences health literacy in clients’/patients’ interpretations of instructions pertaining to their care (ES = 23); 2) influential factors in the clients’/patients’ ability to understand medical terminologies (ES = 20); and (3) practitioners’ estimate of patients’/clients’ specific need for health literacy (ES = 15). The findings showed that language literacy was one of the major challenges in health literacy even though the reviewed studies did not consider how it creates interpretation discrepancies. However, in these trials, the implications were that health care practitioners encountered difficulties in estimating patients’/clients’ needs for health literacy. The need was present in situations of low language literacy because its articulation was limited by language ability. Hence, health literacy interpretation and the challenges faced during the delivery of the key components of the interventions in health literacy education were positively related. This study showed the importance of prioritization of identified areas of concern as part of the recommendation. This was done in order to reduce the incidence or prevalence of health literacy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Thus, the stakeholders will be able to identify their priorities in managing the problems encountered by the health care team and the entire health care delivery system. Furthermore, this study included the insights of the Ministry of Health in creating programs based on the identified concepts. It also presented recommendations for addressing the growing difficulties in health literacy not only in Saudi Arabia but also across the Gulf Countries. Key words: Health Literacy Education Intervention Awareness Challenges Nursing management INTRODUCTION patient during the patient-physician interaction [3]. According to the Institute of Medicine (2004), enhance health literacy worldwide. They include “Health Literacy is the degree to which individuals have simplifying instructions by adding illustrations and the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic avoiding jargon that cannot be understood by the health information and services needed to make patients [4]. Other interventions include the employment appropriate health decisions.” [1]. Studies have proven of teaching methods that encourage patient participation that over half the world’s patient/client population is and the use of enhanced questioning techniques while unable to interpret basic healthcare information [2,3]. taking patient histories [4-6]. Importantly, this dysfunction signals a real health care Although the evaluation of these strategies has dilemma because it increases the risk of medical errors [2]. shown marked improvement in individual behavior among It also leads to faulty or wrong diagnoses of diseases that certain social groups, health literary continues to be a are based on the information and data provided by the global concern for many reasons. Immense changes have Many interventions have been adopted in the attempt to