Health Literacy in Vulnerable Populations: From Exclusion to Equitable and Sustainable Care
A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 11 March 2027 | Viewed by 109
Editors
2. Comprehensive Health Research Centre (CHRC), 7000-811 Évora, Portugal
Interests: nursing; clinical examination; humor intervention; nursing diagnosis; stroke rehabilitation; spinal cord injury; respiratory rehabilitation; rehabilitation; exercise; quality of life
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
2. School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Catholic University of Valencia, 46007 Valencia, Spain
Interests: nursing; public health; cyberbullying; lifestyles
Interests: nursing; women's health nursing; women's health; women in vulnerable situations; rehabilitation; educational materials; validation of educational and assistive materials
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to invite you to submit an article for the Special Issue of Healthcare, titled ‘Health Literacy in Vulnerable Populations: from Exclusion to Equitable and Sustainable Care.’
Health literacy is a critical determinant of people's ability to access, understand, and use information to make decisions that protect their health. In vulnerable populations, marked by socioeconomic inequalities, low education levels, social isolation, clinical frailty, or digital exclusion, these skills are often limited, increasing risks, delaying diagnoses, and reducing adherence to preventive and therapeutic care.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed this structural fragility, revealing that health information, when not accessible, culturally sensitive, or adapted to available resources, can reinforce inequities instead of promoting protection.
Promoting health literacy in these groups requires multi-format strategies, clear language, strengthening community ties, assisted digital inclusion, and interdisciplinary approaches that recognize vulnerabilities without stigmatizing.
Investing in literacy is investing in autonomy, social participation, and equitable care, fundamental pillars for more resilient, humane, and sustainable health systems. The contemporary challenge is not only to inform, but to ensure that information becomes actionable knowledge and an effective right to care. Given its social and scientific relevance, this Special Issue seeks to bring together contributions that promote critical reflections, interdisciplinary analyses, and theoretical and methodological advances on the topic.
The deadline for manuscript submission is 2027-03-11, and the editorial guidelines available on the Healthcare website must be observed. All papers will be evaluated through a peer review process.
We look forward to receiving your valuable contributions.
Dr. Luís Sousa
Dr. Jorge Casaña-Mohedo
Dr. Geyslane Pereira Melo de Albuquerque
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- health literacy
- sustainable development indicators
- health equity
- diversity, equity, inclusion
- persons with disabilities
- chronic disease
- social vulnerability
- health vulnerability
- caregivers
- family caregivers
- informal caregivers
- rehabilitation
- coping strategies
- patient safety
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