Abstract:
Evidence shows that vulnerable populations have lower levels of health literacy, resulting
in poor health-seeking behavior and poor uptake of diagnostics. Being health literate promotes health
care-seeking behavior and improves engagement with diagnostic services. In this editorial, I define
health literacy in the context of access to technology for enabling disease screening, diagnosis and
linkage to care. I refer to health literacy in this context as diagnostics literacy. The COVID-19 pandemic
has taught us that vulnerable populations are disproportionately disadvantaged by the disruptive
measures put in place to control the spread of the virus. Many vulnerable populations are still
experiencing short-and longer-term socio-economic consequences. I propose a multi-level diagnostics
literacy advocacy model to help improve diagnostic uptake among vulnerable populations.
