How does content strategy impact health?

By Janus Boye

Marli Mesibov is an experienced content strategist and very passionate about health literacy

We live in an era when healthcare is getting more complex, not less. Health literacy is low, due to a combination of the complexity of the system, the complexity of the human body, and the state many people are in when they get to their providers. 

Patients and their families or friends are stressed, scared, and struggling to focus at the times they most need to use our websites, read our articles, or interact with our devices. This can lead to anything from higher costs to misused prescriptions.
 
Where do content creators come in? In our digital world, content strategy can be the key to educating and guiding patients and families, helping them to better work with their healthcare providers. 

Marli Mesibov works as a content strategy lead at life sciences firm Verily and in a recent member’s call, she introduced us to the concept of health literacy and shared examples of how content strategy can impact health.

Let’s dive in. What’s health literacy really?

Introducing health literacy

Health literacy as a term gained popularity during Barack Obama's presidency and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) uses this definition of the concept:

“Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.”

In a time where medical bills are a big cause of personal bankruptcies, Marli in particular stressed these two parts as key:

  • “ability to find, understand, and use” - emphasise people’s ability to use health information

  • “decisions and actions” - as content strategists we must focus on the ability to make “well-informed” decisions

In her presentation, she also had the below iceberg-like illustration which shows that only 12% have critical health literacy.

Marli shared this slide in the call and reminded us that we tend to jump between the levels, e.g. when in stressful situations.

Where does content strategy fit in?

With 88% of the population living without critical health literacy, it’s really the content that’s key to helping them. Seemingly simple things like ‘how to take two tablets twice a day’ requires clean and efficient content, ideally accompanied with an illustration.

Marli highlighted the importance of well-written, easily understandable content as essential for helping individuals make informed decisions about their health. She provided examples of how content strategy impacts health literacy, such as formatting articles for easy understanding and ensuring that individuals can quickly access and understand important health information.

In the US and beyond, health is also closely tied to insurance. This is also a field where many, probably most, struggle to read and understand the terms and conditions. Does the insurance cover an ambulance ride to any hospital? Can I go to a private hospital and get my finger dislocation fixed without a hefty surprise invoice?

Marli recommends that you create health related content at or a below a 6th grade reading level, using the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scale. Also take great care to define the terminology and consider prompts or questions to guide users in seeking the right information. Finally, Marli emphasises the importance of personalising content to meet users where they are and helping them navigate complex health information.

Finally, we also covered ‘stress cases’, an alternative to the more commonly known ‘edge cases’. Where designing for ‘edge cases’ is all about those special occurrences that falls outside normal, ‘stress cases’ is really often the case in health related situations. The body and in particular the brain acts differently under stress, and this also impacts your ability to read and understand. Katie Swindler talked more about this from a design perspective in How to design for the human stress response.

Learn more about health literacy

If you are interested in diving deeper into this topic, Marli shared these helpful resources:

Learn more about content strategy

Earlier this year, Marli joined us at CMS Kickoff 24 in Florida and shared a case study on “Buy or Build: the Story of a CMS”. It also covered why Verily needed a CMS and as expected that had much to do with content. You can download the slides (PDF).

The conversation about content strategy naturally continues in our peer groups and conferences. Why not join us and meet your peers? We’ve also covered the topic in the past and you can learn more in these popular posts:

Finally, you can also download the slides (PDF) or even lean back and enjoy the entire recording below.