Health literacy is defined as "people´s knowledge, motivation and competences to access, understand, appraise and apply information to make judgements and take decisions in everyday life healthcare concerning disease prevention and health promotion to maintain and improve quality of life during the life course." In a new volume Anne-Kathrin Mayer and colleagues shed light on the concept of health literacy from different disciplines: psychology, educational sciences, health sciences and public health, communication sciences, and information sciences. All papers argue for a broad conceptual understanding of health literacy.