This paper briefly considers Australia’s only national health survey published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in 2008 which has been widely referenced within the health sector. The main issue discussed is the use of a criterion level (level 3) to determine the point below which nearly 60 percent of Australian adults can be considered to have inadequate health literacy. The argument is made that this criterion level is arbitrary and statistically unjustified, yet it serves the purpose of presenting health literacy as a ‘crisis’ demanding action, which in turn represents the interests of dominant groups in this globalised, neo-liberal era.

中文翻译：

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挑战性的统计数据：为什么我们应该接受60％的澳大利亚成年人健康素养较低的问题？

本文简要介绍了澳大利亚统计局（ABS）于2008年发布的澳大利亚唯一的国家卫生调查，该调查已在卫生领域得到广泛引用。讨论的主要问题是使用标准级别（级别3）来确定一个点，低于该点可以将近60％的澳大利亚成年人视为健康素养不足。有人认为该标准水平是任意的，在统计上是不合理的，但其目的是将健康素养作为“危机”的要求性行动提出，而这反过来又代表了这个全球化的新自由主义时代占统治地位的群体的利益。