Health literacy (HL) comprises a set of personal competences but depends also on characteristics of health care systems and services that enable or hinder the usage of adequate health information for health-related decisions.
With increasing evidence for its importance in health, there is also a growing interest in measuring HL. The Action Network on Measuring Population and Organizational Health Literacy (M-POHL) was started in February 2018, with
the main aim of adding value to individual countries’ efforts in measuring and improving HL. This aim is being pursued by conducting cross-national comparative surveys on population HL, by measuring the HL responsiveness of
health care systems and organizations, and by suggesting recommendations for evidence-informed policy and practice. This current article provides an overview of the developments around HL and its measurement in the WHO
European Region, and introduces the aims, structure and activities of the M-POHL network.