Health Literacy and the Opioid Crisis

An Opportunity for Health Sciences Librarianship

Abstract

As public health challenges, information sources, and research technologies change – so must the strategies that health librarians employ to make sure they are meeting the demands of their community. In recent years, one of the most difficult public health challenges to navigate as health information professionals is the opioid crisis. This literature review provides a summary and analysis on the impact of health literacy and health literacy interventions on the opioid crisis. It concludes that low levels of health literacy are linked to higher levels of opioid misuse, opioid dependency, and opioid misinformation and emphasizes the importance of health literacy interventions to improve outcomes. Opportunities for health sciences librarians to implement interventions and increase literacy are plentiful and include strategies such as plain language resource creation, community-led services, and collaboration between public, academic, and medical library environments.