I85PREP
⌘ K
QCAA Health study materials
QCAA Health study resources

QCAA Health practice questions

One question at a time. Build your QCAA Health understanding.

First 50 of 199 questions. Each one lists the choices, the correct answer, and an explanation. The checker at the top of this page saves progress in this browser when it is available.

Continue in the practice tool above to load more questions, 50 at a time.

Question 1Health literacy and the social view of health

Which description best defines health literacy?

  1. The genetic conditions a person inherits from their parents
  2. The capacity to obtain, interpret and apply health information Correct answer.
  3. The number of years of schooling a person has completed
  4. The range of health services available in a local community

Explanation

Health literacy is a person's capacity to access, understand, appraise and apply health information so they can make informed decisions and act on them. It includes reading, numeracy and critical reasoning skills, and it is shaped by both the individual and the demands made by the health system.

Question 2Health literacy and the social view of health

The World Health Organization defines health as which of the following?

  1. The capacity to work and care for a family without assistance
  2. A level of fitness that allows a person to exercise regularly
  3. A state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing Correct answer.
  4. The absence of disease or physical injury

Explanation

The WHO definition describes health as a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. This positive, multidimensional framing underpins the social view of health and the practice of health promotion.

Question 3Health literacy and the social view of health

Which of the following is one of the five action areas of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion?

  1. Building healthy public policy Correct answer.
  2. Funding clinical trials for new medicines
  3. Increasing the number of general practitioners
  4. Expanding the number of hospital beds

Explanation

The Ottawa Charter's five action areas are building healthy public policy, creating supportive environments, strengthening community action, developing personal skills and reorienting health services. Building healthy public policy makes health a consideration across all sectors, not only within health care.

Question 4Health literacy and the social view of health

Two suburbs have similar populations, but residents of the suburb with lower average income have much higher rates of type 2 diabetes. Which explanation best reflects the social view of health?

  1. The difference reflects genetic differences between the two populations.
  2. The difference is caused by random chance and has no public health meaning.
  3. Income, housing and access to affordable healthy food shape health outcomes. Correct answer.
  4. Residents of the lower-income suburb have weaker willpower and make poorer choices.

Explanation

A social view of health explains population differences through the conditions in which people live, such as income, housing, employment and food security. These social determinants shape exposure to risk and access to care, so a consistent gap between income groups points to structural causes rather than individual failings.

Question 5Health literacy and the social view of health

A health service has a fixed budget. Which approach best demonstrates health equity?

  1. Providing services only to people who can pay the full fee
  2. Directing more resources to groups experiencing the greatest disadvantage Correct answer.
  3. Giving every person in the region exactly the same service and resources
  4. Funding services in proportion to how many people request them

Explanation

Equity means allocating resources according to need so that everyone has a fair opportunity to be healthy, which often requires more support for disadvantaged groups. Equality would give identical resources to all, which can preserve existing disadvantage when needs differ.

Question 6Health literacy and the social view of health

A patient asks their doctor questions, discusses treatment options and negotiates a plan that fits their family situation. Which level of health literacy does this best demonstrate?

  1. Critical health literacy
  2. Interactive health literacy Correct answer.
  3. Functional health literacy
  4. Numeracy health literacy

Explanation

Interactive health literacy involves using cognitive and social skills to engage with others, ask questions and apply information to changing circumstances. Functional literacy covers basic reading and comprehension, while critical literacy involves evaluating information and acting on wider social determinants of health.

Question 7Health literacy and the social view of health

A council wants to reduce tooth decay in children. Which action is the most upstream approach?

  1. Paying for fillings for children who develop cavities
  2. Giving parents vouchers for discounted dental treatment
  3. Adding fluoride to the town's drinking water supply Correct answer.
  4. Running a clinic that treats advanced dental infections

Explanation

Upstream approaches act on the conditions that cause ill health across a whole population before problems occur, such as water fluoridation. Downstream approaches focus on treating individuals after disease has developed, which is necessary but does not prevent new cases arising.

Question 8Health literacy and the social view of health

A region wants to reduce road deaths among young people. Which feature of the social view of health is best shown by involving police, transport, schools and health services in one strategy?

  1. The biomedical model of health
  2. The use of downstream clinical treatment
  3. The principle of individual responsibility
  4. Intersectoral collaboration Correct answer.

Explanation

Intersectoral collaboration means agencies from different sectors combine their expertise and authority because health is shaped by factors outside the health system, such as road design, enforcement and education. The social view of health recognises that complex problems need coordinated action across sectors.

Question 9Health literacy and the social view of health

A campaign tells people to 'make better lifestyle choices' to reduce chronic disease in a low-income community. Which critique is most consistent with a social view of health?

  1. It overstates the role of hospitals in preventing chronic disease
  2. It places too much emphasis on government regulation of industry
  3. It provides too many resources to community-based programs
  4. It ignores how income, housing and food access limit the choices people can make Correct answer.

Explanation

A social view of health holds that health behaviours are constrained by the conditions in which people live, so advice alone cannot overcome inadequate income, poor housing or limited access to healthy food. Effective action also targets these upstream determinants rather than treating poor choices as the sole cause of disease.

Question 10Health literacy and the social view of health

A hospital gives patients a complex, densely written discharge form. From a health literacy perspective, which interpretation is most defensible?

  1. The form's difficulty is also a system problem Correct answer.
  2. Health literacy is unrelated to how information is presented
  3. Written information removes any need for further explanation
  4. Low health literacy is entirely the patient's responsibility to fix

Explanation

Health literacy is relational: it depends on the interaction between a person's skills and the demands made by health information and services. A form that most patients cannot understand indicates a system design problem, so simplifying documents and checking understanding are shared responsibilities.

Question 11Health literacy and the social view of health

Which statement best describes social determinants of health?

  1. The infectious viruses and bacteria that circulate within a local community.
  2. The inherited genetic traits that a person receives from both of their biological parents.
  3. The everyday conditions in which people are born, grow, live and work. Correct answer.
  4. The personal lifestyle choices individuals make about diet, exercise and smoking.

Explanation

Social determinants are the conditions of daily life, including income, education, housing, employment and social support, that shape a person's health chances. They are distinct from biological causes of disease and from individual behaviour, although behaviour is itself shaped by these conditions.

Question 12Health literacy and the social view of health

Functional health literacy refers to which set of skills?

  1. The ability to challenge political decisions and advocate for change across the whole community.
  2. The ability to read and understand basic health information such as medicine labels. Correct answer.
  3. The ability to evaluate complex health claims using advanced statistical and numerical reasoning skills.
  4. The ability to negotiate meaning with health professionals during a face-to-face consultation.

Explanation

Functional health literacy is the foundational level and covers the reading, writing and numeracy skills needed to manage everyday health tasks such as following medicine instructions or reading an appointment letter. Interactive and critical literacy are more advanced levels that involve social exchange and collective action.

Question 13Health literacy and the social view of health

Which statement best distinguishes health promotion from health education?

  1. Health promotion is delivered exclusively by medical practitioners, while health education is delivered by teachers.
  2. Health promotion targets only individual lifestyle behaviour, while health education targets government policy.
  3. Health promotion and health education are identical terms that describe the same set of communication activities.
  4. Health promotion combines education with policy and environmental change; health education mainly gives information. Correct answer.

Explanation

Health promotion is the broader process of enabling people to increase control over and improve their health, and it combines education with healthy public policy, supportive environments and community action. Health education is one component that builds knowledge and skills but does not on its own alter the conditions shaping behaviour.

Question 14Health literacy and the social view of health

A residents' group in a low-income suburb gathers evidence about poor public transport and presents it to the council, successfully lobbying for a new bus route. Which level of health literacy does this best illustrate?

  1. Functional health literacy, because residents could read timetables and service brochures easily.
  2. Critical health literacy, because residents used evidence to change a social condition. Correct answer.
  3. Interactive health literacy, because residents talked with one another about the transport issue.
  4. Cultural health literacy, because residents shared a common cultural background.

Explanation

Critical health literacy involves obtaining and appraising information and then acting on the social, political and economic determinants of health. The residents moved beyond reading and discussion to collective advocacy that changed a structural condition affecting access to services.

Question 15Health literacy and the social view of health

A nurse wants to confirm that a patient understands how to take a new medicine. Which approach best uses the teach-back method?

  1. Repeating the instructions more loudly and more slowly a second time.
  2. Giving the patient a printed leaflet and asking them to sign that they have read it.
  3. Asking the patient 'Do you understand the instructions I just gave you?'
  4. Asking the patient to explain in their own words how they will take the medicine. Correct answer.

Explanation

Teach-back checks comprehension by inviting the person to restate the information in their own words, which exposes gaps that the clinician can then address. It places responsibility for clear communication on the provider rather than on a yes-or-no question that patients often answer politely.

Question 16Health literacy and the social view of health

Which statement reflects the social model of health rather than the biomedical model?

  1. Health is primarily determined by the quality of medical treatment available in large public hospitals.
  2. Illness results from genetic inheritance and can be corrected through clinical intervention.
  3. Disease is best explained by the interaction of pathogens with an individual's specific physiology.
  4. Health outcomes are shaped mainly by living and working conditions and access to services. Correct answer.

Explanation

The social model locates the main determinants of health in social, economic and environmental conditions, and it emphasises prevention, equity and intersectoral action. The biomedical model instead focuses on biological mechanisms, diagnosis and treatment of disease in individual patients.

Question 17Health literacy and the social view of health

In the Dahlgren and Whitehead rainbow model, which layer sits closest to the individual at the centre?

  1. Individual lifestyle factors such as diet, smoking and physical activity. Correct answer.
  2. Social and community networks, including family, friends and local associations.
  3. Living and working conditions, including housing, education and health care.
  4. General socioeconomic, cultural and environmental conditions operating across the whole society.

Explanation

The rainbow model arranges determinants in concentric layers, with age, sex and constitutional factors at the centre, then individual lifestyle factors, then social and community networks, living and working conditions, and general socioeconomic conditions outermost. The lifestyle layer is therefore the first layer surrounding the individual.

Question 18Health literacy and the social view of health

A hospital redesigns its signage, simplifies appointment letters and trains staff to use plain language. Which concept does this best illustrate?

  1. The individual functional health literacy of the hospital's admitted patients.
  2. The biomedical approach to reducing hospital-acquired infection rates among inpatients.
  3. Organisational health literacy, because the system itself is made easier to use. Correct answer.
  4. The social gradient in health status that exists across the hospital catchment area.

Explanation

Organisational health literacy treats health literacy as a property of the service environment as well as of individuals. Reducing the literacy demands of forms, signage and communication makes care easier to access and use for everyone, regardless of their personal skills.

Question 19Health literacy and the social view of health

A state government funds a parenting program for all families but adds extra resources and targeted support in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Which principle does this best reflect?

  1. A biomedical model that prioritises clinical treatment over prevention.
  2. Proportionate universalism, with support scaled to the level of disadvantage. Correct answer.
  3. A targeted program that excludes families living in advantaged areas.
  4. A downstream approach focused on treating individual parents after problems arise.

Explanation

Proportionate universalism means actions are universal but their intensity is scaled according to the level of disadvantage, so everyone is reached while the social gradient is narrowed. Targeting only the worst-off can miss the many families in the middle, while universal action alone may widen gaps between groups.

Question 20Health literacy and the social view of health

A public health researcher argues that rising obesity should be analysed by examining how food companies price, market and formulate their products. Which concept is the researcher applying?

  1. The biomedical model, because obesity is a clinical condition needing treatment.
  2. Health literacy, because consumers need to read nutrition labels more carefully.
  3. Cultural safety, because food preferences vary between cultural groups.
  4. Commercial determinants of health, because corporate practices shape population health. Correct answer.

Explanation

The commercial determinants of health are the strategies and practices of private-sector actors, including marketing, pricing, product design and political influence, that affect population health. Analysing these shifts attention from individual consumer choice to the systems that structure and constrain it.

Question 21Health literacy and the social view of health

Critical health literacy is best described as the capacity to:

  1. read and follow basic instructions printed on a medicine label
  2. calculate medicine doses and interpret risk numbers
  3. discuss a personal treatment plan with a doctor
  4. analyse health information and take action on social determinants Correct answer.

Explanation

Critical health literacy involves advanced cognitive and social skills: people critique health information and act on the social, political and economic conditions that affect health. It is distinguished from functional literacy, which concerns basic reading and numeracy, and interactive literacy, which concerns communicating and applying information with others.

Question 22Health literacy and the social view of health

The social gradient in health refers to which pattern?

  1. Health is worse only among the very poorest people in a society.
  2. Health status is randomly distributed across income groups.
  3. Health improves step by step as socioeconomic position rises. Correct answer.
  4. Health differences between groups are caused mainly by genes.

Explanation

The social gradient describes a stepwise relationship: at each level of socioeconomic position, health tends to be better than at the level below. It is not confined to the poorest group, which is why whole-population and proportionate approaches are relevant.

Question 23Health literacy and the social view of health

An asset-based approach to community health focuses primarily on:

  1. measuring how many residents use local health services
  2. listing the diseases and risk factors that are most common locally
  3. identifying strengths and resources already present in a community Correct answer.
  4. ranking community needs so funding can be allocated

Explanation

An asset-based approach starts from community strengths, such as skills, networks and local resources, rather than beginning with a deficit list of problems. It supports participation and locally led action, which can strengthen control and sustainability.

Question 24Health literacy and the social view of health

A patient is told that a treatment reduces their risk from 2 in 100 to 1 in 100. Which health literacy skill is most directly needed to understand this advice?

  1. Knowing how to find a reliable internet source about the treatment.
  2. Understanding and comparing numerical risk information. Correct answer.
  3. Being able to read the printed patient information leaflet.
  4. Being able to explain the treatment to a family member.

Explanation

Understanding a risk change from 2 in 100 to 1 in 100 requires quantitative health literacy, including numeracy and the ability to compare probabilities. Reading the leaflet or finding a source may help, but the core demand here is interpreting numerical risk.

Question 25Health literacy and the social view of health

Which statement best reflects a life course approach to health?

  1. Health behaviours in old age are the strongest influence on wellbeing.
  2. Health is fixed during early childhood and changes little after that.
  3. Health is shaped by experiences across the lifespan, including before birth. Correct answer.
  4. Health in adulthood is determined mainly by the genes a person inherits.

Explanation

A life course approach recognises that health develops through cumulative exposures and transitions from preconception and childhood through adulthood and older age. It directs attention to timing, accumulation and pathways rather than treating adult health as fixed by genes or late-life behaviour.

Question 26Health literacy and the social view of health

A health service wants to provide culturally safe care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients. Which action best reflects cultural safety?

  1. sharing decision-making power with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities Correct answer.
  2. Translating appointment letters into several languages spoken locally
  3. Running a one-off cultural awareness training session for all staff
  4. Providing all patients with the same standard information sheet about the service

Explanation

Cultural safety centres on power, self-determination and respectful relationships, and it is defined by the people receiving care. It requires structural change and shared decision-making, not only staff awareness or translated documents.

Question 27Health literacy and the social view of health

Which scenario best illustrates Health in All Policies?

  1. A clinic offers free blood pressure checks at a shopping centre
  2. A transport plan improves access to fresh food and clinics Correct answer.
  3. A hospital opens a new emergency department for chronic disease
  4. A health department runs a campaign urging adults to exercise

Explanation

Health in All Policies means that health implications are considered systematically in policy across sectors such as transport, housing and education. A transport plan that shapes access to food and health services shows this cross-sector consideration.

Question 28Health literacy and the social view of health

Which situation is the clearest example of social capital supporting health?

  1. A council builds a new hospital in a growing suburb
  2. A person buys private health insurance to access faster treatment
  3. Neighbours run a walking bus so children walk safely together Correct answer.
  4. A patient receives a prescription for a chronic condition

Explanation

Social capital refers to the networks, trust and reciprocity among people, which can provide practical support and collective efficacy. A walking bus is a collective neighbourhood action that builds connections and supports child health.

Question 29Health literacy and the social view of health

A study finds that older women from a low-income migrant background report poorer access to preventive care than would be predicted by age, income or migrant status alone. Which concept best explains this finding?

  1. The inverse care law, as services are least available to those in greatest need
  2. Intersectionality, as multiple disadvantages interact to shape access Correct answer.
  3. The social gradient, as health worsens steadily with lower income
  4. Health literacy, as the women may struggle to read health information

Explanation

Intersectionality explains how multiple social identities and systems of disadvantage, such as age, gender, income and migration status, interact to produce experiences that cannot be reduced to one category alone. The finding is greater than the sum of separate effects.

Question 30Health literacy and the social view of health

Which scenario best illustrates the inverse care law?

  1. Health services are allocated equally across every area regardless of the level of need.
  2. The clinic in the poorest area has the fewest staff and longest waits. Correct answer.
  3. A hospital reports that waiting times are similar across all socioeconomic groups in its catchment.
  4. A government funds a program in proportion to the level of community need.

Explanation

The inverse care law describes the tendency for good-quality health care to be least available where need is greatest. A deprived area clinic with fewer staff and longer waits demonstrates this mismatch between need and service provision.

Question 31Health literacy and the social view of health

A secondary school introduces a healthy canteen policy, daily activity breaks and a wellbeing curriculum for all year levels. Which concept does this best illustrate?

  1. A settings-based approach to health promotion Correct answer.
  2. A clinical screening program delivered by nurses
  3. A biomedical model of health focused on treating disease
  4. An individual behaviour-change program targeting one risk factor

Explanation

Settings-based health promotion treats the places where people live, learn and work as the unit of intervention, so policy, environment and curriculum are changed together. The school itself becomes a health-promoting setting rather than simply a venue for a single program aimed at individuals.

Question 32Health literacy and the social view of health

A local council installs shaded seating, water refill stations and safe walking paths around a housing estate. Which Ottawa Charter action area does this most directly illustrate?

  1. Building healthy public policy across sectors
  2. Reorienting health services toward prevention
  3. Developing personal skills through education
  4. Creating supportive environments Correct answer.

Explanation

The Ottawa Charter's action area of creating supportive environments concerns the physical and social settings in which people live, work and play. Modifying the built environment so that healthy choices are easier and safer fits this action area directly.

Question 33Health literacy and the social view of health

Which statement best describes health equity?

  1. Making sure that every group in society achieves identical health outcomes
  2. Allowing health services to be purchased privately by those who can afford them
  3. Fair distribution of resources to reduce avoidable differences in health Correct answer.
  4. Giving every person exactly the same health resources regardless of need

Explanation

Equity is about fairness: because people have different needs and circumstances, resources and services must be allocated in ways that reduce avoidable and unjust differences in health. It is not the same as equality, which means giving identical resources to everyone.

Question 34Health literacy and the social view of health

In the Dahlgren and Whitehead rainbow model, a person's housing quality, employment status and access to transport belong mainly to which layer?

  1. Age, sex and constitutional factors
  2. General socioeconomic, cultural and environmental conditions
  3. Social and community networks
  4. Living and working conditions Correct answer.

Explanation

The rainbow model places living and working conditions in the layer surrounding community networks, covering housing, employment, education, transport and access to health care. The outer layer captures broad national and global conditions, while age, sex and constitutional factors sit at the centre.

Question 35Health literacy and the social view of health

A health service rewrites a consent form so that sentences are short, jargon is replaced with everyday words and key actions are listed as dot points. What is the main purpose of this change?

  1. To encourage patients to complete the form without asking questions
  2. To meet legal requirements for documenting consent
  3. To reduce the reading demand placed on patients Correct answer.
  4. To improve the accuracy of the clinical consent interview

Explanation

Plain language editing targets readability so that people across a range of literacy levels can find, understand and use the information. It lowers the literacy demand of the document rather than altering legal obligations or discouraging questions.

Question 36Health literacy and the social view of health

A clinic decides to use plain-language materials and teach-back with every patient, rather than screening for low literacy first. Which principle does this reflect?

  1. The inverse care law, which links need and service availability
  2. Paternalism, where clinicians decide what is best for patients
  3. Health literacy universal precautions Correct answer.
  4. Triage, which ranks patients by urgency of clinical need

Explanation

Health literacy universal precautions mean assuming that any patient may struggle with health information, so clear communication is built into routine care for everyone. This avoids singling people out and reduces the chance that those with limited literacy are missed.

Question 37Health literacy and the social view of health

A health educator facilitates a group in which participants identify their own health priorities and decide which actions to take. Which approach is this?

  1. A screening approach focused on early detection
  2. A preventive approach focused on behaviour compliance
  3. A medical approach focused on diagnosis and treatment
  4. An empowerment approach to health education Correct answer.

Explanation

Empowerment approaches shift control to participants, with the educator acting as a facilitator rather than an expert who prescribes behaviour. Participants set their own priorities and plan action, which builds capacity for future decision-making.

Question 38Health literacy and the social view of health

Which action is the clearest example of an upstream intervention in the social model of health?

  1. Running a walk-in clinic that treats respiratory infections
  2. Providing subsidised medication to people diagnosed with asthma
  3. Teaching patients to use inhalers correctly at discharge
  4. Setting minimum housing standards to reduce damp Correct answer.

Explanation

Upstream interventions act on the conditions that generate ill health across the population, such as housing regulation, rather than treating individuals once disease appears. Minimum housing standards address a cause of respiratory illness instead of its symptoms.

Question 39Health literacy and the social view of health

A researcher administers a test in which participants read aloud a list of medical words of increasing difficulty. What does this test primarily measure?

  1. Critical appraisal, shown by judging the trustworthiness of evidence
  2. Disease knowledge, shown by answering questions about prevention
  3. Word recognition and pronunciation Correct answer.
  4. Numeracy, shown by calculating risk from percentages

Explanation

Word-pronunciation tests are indirect measures of reading ability: they show whether a person can decode health-related vocabulary. They capture a narrow, functional dimension of health literacy and say nothing about reasoning with numbers, evaluating evidence or understanding prevention.

Question 40Health literacy and the social view of health

Why do public health researchers argue that limited health literacy should be treated as an equity issue rather than only an individual skill deficit?

  1. Because only people with poor reading skills face complex health information
  2. Because low health literacy is spread evenly across all income and education groups
  3. Because health literacy is a fixed trait that cannot be improved by education
  4. Because it clusters in disadvantaged groups and deepens their disadvantage Correct answer.

Explanation

Health literacy is socially patterned, being lower among people with less education, lower income, older age and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and it interacts with systems that demand complex skills. Treating it purely as an individual deficit ignores the demand side of services and compounds existing inequity.

Question 41Health literacy and the social view of health

Health literacy is best understood as the degree to which individuals can:

  1. follow a clinician's instructions without asking questions
  2. recite medical terminology without making errors
  3. avoid using health services unless seriously ill
  4. obtain, understand and use information to make health decisions Correct answer.

Explanation

Health literacy encompasses accessing, comprehending, appraising and applying health information to make informed decisions. It is not simply knowing medical words or obeying instructions; it depends on both personal skills and the demands of the health environment.

Question 42Health literacy and the social view of health

Which list contains only social determinants of health?

  1. Income, education and housing quality Correct answer.
  2. Viral load, genetic mutation and body mass index
  3. Heart rate, age and height
  4. Blood pressure, cholesterol level and lung capacity

Explanation

Social determinants are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, and they include income, education and housing. The other options list clinical, biological or physiological measures rather than social conditions.

Question 43Health literacy and the social view of health

A person who feels cared for and valued by friends during a difficult illness is receiving which type of social support?

  1. Informational support
  2. Financial support
  3. Instrumental support
  4. Emotional support Correct answer.

Explanation

Emotional support involves empathy, reassurance and caring, which help a person feel valued. Instrumental support is practical help, informational support is advice or knowledge, and financial support is a form of tangible aid involving money.

Question 44Health literacy and the social view of health

Two neighbourhoods have similar average incomes, but residents of one report much worse health. A researcher explains this by pointing to long working hours, low job control and chronic stress. Which explanation of health inequalities is being used?

  1. Psychosocial explanation Correct answer.
  2. Behavioural or lifestyle explanation
  3. Genetic explanation
  4. Biomedical explanation

Explanation

Psychosocial explanations focus on stress, control, social support and psychological pathways that link social conditions to health. Behavioural explanations emphasise individual choices, while biomedical explanations focus on physiological or disease mechanisms.

Question 45Health literacy and the social view of health

A patient with diabetes reads a brochure, watches a video and joins a peer group to learn how to manage meals and medication. Which dimension of health literacy is most clearly demonstrated?

  1. Critical health literacy
  2. Numerical health literacy
  3. Functional health literacy
  4. Interactive health literacy Correct answer.

Explanation

Interactive health literacy involves using communication and social skills to extract and apply information from different sources, including peer groups. Functional literacy mainly concerns basic reading and writing, while critical literacy involves appraisal and action on broader determinants.

Question 46Health literacy and the social view of health

A hospital wants to become a health-literate organisation. Which action best matches this goal?

  1. Providing health information only in English to standardise communication
  2. Redesigning navigation, forms and signage so that most people can use them easily Correct answer.
  3. Asking clinicians to speak more quickly to shorten consultations
  4. Testing every patient's reading age before allowing an appointment

Explanation

Organisational health literacy reduces demands on individuals by making systems easier to navigate and understand. It typically uses universal precautions rather than screening patients for literacy and aims to remove communication barriers.

Question 47Health literacy and the social view of health

An intersectional analysis of health literacy would pay closest attention to which issue?

  1. Whether a person can read at a Year 8 level
  2. Whether a hospital has a written health literacy policy
  3. How many health brochures are distributed each year
  4. How gender, migration status and low income combine to shape access to health information Correct answer.

Explanation

Intersectionality examines how multiple social identities and systems of disadvantage interact to shape health experiences. It goes beyond single categories, policy documents or simple counts of materials.

Question 48Health literacy and the social view of health

Proportional universalism in health policy means:

  1. Letting market forces determine who receives care
  2. Providing identical services to everyone regardless of need
  3. Focusing only on the most disadvantaged group and ignoring the rest
  4. Providing universal services with additional intensity for groups facing greater disadvantage Correct answer.

Explanation

Proportional universalism combines universal coverage with proportionate investment according to need. It aims to reduce the social gradient in health, not merely target the worst-off or treat everyone identically.

Question 49Health literacy and the social view of health

The demand-control model suggests that which work characteristic is most harmful to health?

  1. High psychological demand combined with high control over decisions
  2. Low psychological demand combined with low control over decisions
  3. Low psychological demand combined with high control over decisions
  4. High psychological demand combined with low control over decisions Correct answer.

Explanation

Karasek's demand-control model identifies high-strain jobs as those with high psychological demand and low decision control, which are linked to stress and illness. High demand with high control is an active pattern and is generally less harmful.

Question 50Health literacy and the social view of health

Which statement best distinguishes the empowerment model of health literacy from the clinical risk model?

  1. The empowerment model focuses only on reading ability, while the clinical risk model focuses on community action.
  2. The empowerment model measures literacy with word-recognition tests, while the clinical risk model uses questionnaires.
  3. The empowerment model treats health literacy as a resource for collective and individual action, while the clinical risk model treats low literacy as a risk to be managed. Correct answer.
  4. The empowerment model is concerned only with doctor-patient communication, while the clinical risk model addresses public policy.

Explanation

The empowerment model sees health literacy as an asset that enables people and communities to act on health and its determinants. The clinical risk model frames low literacy as a risk factor for poor communication and health outcomes that services should manage.