Health Inclusivity

Improving health literacy is essential to empowering people to take more control of their everyday health. Insights from the Economist Impact Health Inclusivity Index, supported by Haleon, shows that low health literacy has a significant impact on health outcomes and healthcare systems. The study found that reducing low health literacy by 25% in the 40 Index countries could deliver US$ 302.7 billion annual healthcare cost savings¹, demonstrating the scale of opportunity when people have the knowledge and confidence to manage their health more effectively.

We’re leveraging our purposeful brands to improve health literacy amongst people and communities who stand to benefit the most. By growing knowledge, skills and providing support, our health literacy initiatives are focused on informing and empowering people to adopt better self-care through adopting healthy living and behaviours.

One way in which we drive greater health literacy and self-care is by engaging health professionals through the Haleon Health Partner Portal. This provides evidence-based resources and tools to help them improve their patients’ health knowledge and understanding, empowering them to take better care of their own health.

Click here to learn more about how we are investing in research and action.

Accessing everyday health products and affordable care are significant barriers to health inclusivity, particularly among rural, hard-to-reach and lower income communities. We are committed to making everyday health products more affordable and available, so that they are within price and arms reach of millions more people by:

• Developing affordable product solutions that meet the needs of lower-income consumers.
• Expanding our reach in key markets such as India, China, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.
• Launching products in accessible formats and at price points which help people to look after their health while managing their household budget, including through single-serve and low-cost packs.

Bias and prejudice are barriers that discourage or prevent people from accessing the care they need such as different types of discrimination, stereotype and stigma. These issues are not confined to a single country; they are global, systemic, and deeply entrenched within both our health systems and individual beliefs. They have a significant impact on access to care, health outcomes, and mental wellbeing. We are committed to addressing this barrier by engaging directly with consumers, helping them recognise and overcome limiting beliefs.

We also provide training and resources to health professionals to help them offer culturally relevant, inclusive advice to the people they serve. Through our research and advocacy, we promote inclusive health policies and practices to help create an enabling environment for improved health inclusivity.

Challenges with health literacy, an inability to access the right care, and bias and prejudice can hold people back across the communities in which we live and work.

That is why building healthier communities is critical to making everyday health more inclusive. We identify opportunities where we can have the most impact, providing local and global charitable donations, including funding, product donations and our employees’ time through volunteering initiatives.

We are launching the Haleon Better Everyday Health Project – a community-led initiative, delivered with partners such as CARE international, that helps bring everyday health advice and products closer to where people need them. Through the project, we will strengthen and build the capabilities of trusted community voices such as pharmacy workers, health educators and community leaders to help people take more control of their everyday health, putting health in more hands. This will:

• Build health literacy, so people have the knowledge, confidence and resources they need to recognise health issues and take action to treat them.
• Increase access to everyday health products available for more people.
• Tackle bias and prejudice by addressing limiting beliefs and practices that hold people back from better everyday health, so more people get the inclusive care and unbiased advice they need. 

We’re taking this approach because we know that better everyday health begins in the community.  By bringing the scale and credibility of our trusted brands together with the community voices people turn to first, we can help millions of people take more control of their everyday health.