The idea for this volume developed when we were co-teaching our introductory, mas ter''s-level course in the Department of Health Behavior at the UAB School of Public Health, a core course for all masters of public health students in the school regardless of the department in which they enrolled or the focus of their studies. Hence, in the course we sought to provide both students in our department, as well as those who might not ever again take a health behavior course, with an overview that would both truly represent the field and substantially provide educational, research, and public health practice benefits. This was, and continues to be, a challenge with the diversity of students specializing in fields that include not only health behavior but also bio statistics, environmental health sciences, epidemiology, health care organization and policy, international health, and maternal and child health. The course that we taught attempted to provide the students with an overview of some of the important health promotion and disease prevention theories, methods, and policy issues, while re viewing applications of these theories and methods to promoting health and pre venting disease through a variety of channels, for a variety of disease outcomes, and among a variety of populations. Since no one text provided this variety of readings, we depended on readings and guest lectures.
