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Global Health Promotion 1757-9759; Vol 25(4): 3 –5; 814436 Copyright © The Author(s) 2018, Reprints and permissions: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: .1 77/1757975918814436 journals.sagepub.com/home/ghp The past 25 years has seen remarkable growth in interest in health literacy among researchers, policymakers and practitioners. This interest has been underpinned by academic debate about the concept, definition and measurement of health literacy, and further strengthened by a growing volume of research examining the relationship between health literacy and health outcomes. This includes a small but increasing number of studies that report on interventions to improve health literacy in different community and clinical populations. The reasons for this rapid expansion in interest are not difficult to understand. For researchers, health literacy offers an observable phenomenon that can be used to understand and explain variation in health and disease outcomes. For health promotion practitioners, health literacy is conceptually attractive in its fit with contemporary health promotion, understood as a personal and communal ‘asset’ that can be developed through educational, organisational and other interventions that support greater control over a range of determinants of health. For those working to reduce health disparities, health literacy has been shown to be a significant, independent and modifiable social determinant of health. For those interested in evaluating the quality and appropriateness of health information, education and communication interventions, health literacy has long been proposed as a useful outcome measure. Health literacy has also emerged as an important issue in clinical practice and public policy. Work over the past two decades has established health literacy as an identifiable and manageable risk in clinical care, of particular importance in the management of long-term and complex conditions that depend upon successful patient engagement and management. For policy-makers, health literacy has been adopted to support a full spectrum of policy positions reflecting a desire for greater patient and public engagement in health decision-making. This is reflected in a series of national and regional health literacy policies and strategies issued by governments in countries with diverse economic, political and health systems (1). All of these advances are reflected in this special edition of Global Health Promotion, which provides a mix of original research in different populations (including adolescents, school students, refugees, elderly, and indigenous Māori), and using innovative media (virtual/digital worlds, comic books); the development of a novel methodology for assessing government policies on health literacy; and examination of the growth of professional communities of practice. In making a call for expressions of interest in this special edition, we were delighted to receive almost 30 responses. When selecting the articles for final inclusion in the special edition, we gave preference to studies that either were describing interventions, or else advanced knowledge that will ultimately influence the effectiveness of interventions, whether sited in health promotion, education or clinical settings. The selected papers reflect the diversity of research, policy and practice that characterises the field at this stage in its evolution. Strengthening personal and community skills in ways that enable and empower people to be confident, informed and engaged in decisions that influence the determinants of health has been a cornerstone of modern health promotion since the publication of WHO’s Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion in 1986 (2). This goal of strengthening personal skills has evolved continuously and been included consistently in 814436PED0010.1177/1757975918814436Global Health PromotionD. Nutbeam et al. editorial2018