International Handbook of Health Literacy: Research, practice and policy across the lifespan

Health literacy has recently become a topic of relevance among researchers, practitioners and policy-makers across various disciplines. One major driver of this obvious increase in importance is the potential that has been attributed to health literacy in order to understand, explain and tackle individual as well as group differences in various health outcomes. Empirical findings such as the results from the European Health Literacy Project have supported such perspectives as they have consistently been highlighting the need for action. The emergence of the topic of health literacy in various research and policy agendas has also been promoted by the zeitgeist prevailing in Western societies that is also rising in other parts of the world