Leader: 'Tackle poor health - but also illiteracy'

But it is a fact, according to Alison McCallum, NHS Lothian's director of public health, who says 23 per cent of people cannot read well enough even to hold down a job.

As a consequence, she warns, they also can't be expected to understand the sort of public health messages that the authorities rely on to try to promote better ways of living.

And that means that some of the people most at risk from smoking, drinking and drug-taking, and who are least likely to take exercise or eat their five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, are least likely to learn the error of their ways.

Of course, many taxpayers resent the public money spent on any such messages anyway, deeming it a waste of cash for the nanny state to try to nag people into living more healthily.

It is true that some public health campaigns are over the top or even unnecessary, and it is tempting to see them as part of a self-serving, publicly-financed industry.

But it is clear that core messages that encourage people to keep healthy can cut the costs to the NHS of looking after people with long-term illnesses associated with their lifestyles.

What's more, it is much better to spend a relatively small amount of cash educating people on safe levels of drinking, say, than wield a legislative sledgehammer such as for a minimum price on alcohol.

So, even if we have some doubts about the scale of "functionally illiteracy" in the Lothians, Ms McCallum is right to highlight the need to get such messages to even the hardest-to-reach places.

If that means using simpler themes, plus delivery methods such as e-mail, text and Twitter, then so be it.

Meanwhile, let's make sure that as much effort is focused on tackling the root problem, which makes necessary campaigns aimed at the lowest common denominator - by tackling illiteracy, not just in the early years of schooling but throughout the lives of local citizens.