Advancing Health Literacy: A Framework for Understanding and Action

Advancing Health Literacy addresses the crisis in health literacy in the United States and around the world. This book thoroughly examines the critical role of literacy in public health and outlines a practical, effective model that bridges the gap between health education, health promotion, and health communication. Step by step, the authors outline the theory and practice of health literacy from a public health perspective. This comprehensive resource includes the history of health literacy, theoretical foundations of health and language literacy, the role of the media, a series of case studies on important topics including prenatal care, anthrax, HIV/AIDS, genomics, and diabetes. The book concludes with a series of practical guidelines for the development and assessment of health communications materials. Also included are essential techniques needed to help people make informed decisions, advocate for themselves and their community, mitigate risk, and live healthier lives.

Christina Zarcadoolas, Ph.D., is associate clinical professor in the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in New York City. She is a sociolinguist who has spent thirty years studying language and literacy of vulnerable populations.

Andrew F. Pleasant, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Ecology and the Extension Department of Family and Community Health Sciences at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He previously served as a temporary advisor to the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, and actively conducts research both in the United States and internationally.

David S. Greer, M.D., is dean of medicine emeritus, and professor of community health emeritus at the Division of Biology and Medicine, School of Medicine, Brown University. Greer has been a family doctor, researcher, medical school leader, community leader, and mentor to countless health professionals for many decades. He was a founding director of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985.