Advancing Health Literacy: A Framework for Understanding and Action examines the critical role both basic literacy and health literacy play in public health. The book develops an elaborated model of health literacy addressing the roles of fundamental, civic, science and cultural literacy. The book starts by providing an organizing framework for bridging health promotion and education with greater patient/public health knowledge and informed decision making.??Readers are provided with foundational knowledge of health literacy from a public health perspective, general principles about language and literacy, and the role of mass media. Case studies provide the opportunity to link general literacy, science literacy, civic literacy, cultural literacy, and mass media into a practical understanding of health literacy. Guidelines in the creation and evaluation of materials provide the necessary tools for putting the book's lessons into practice. The book is divided into four sections: Modeling health literacy (four chapters), Case Studies (six chapters), and guidelines on developing health materials and evaluating health programs.